Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker recently visited the South Carolina State House to gather support for their “balanced budget amendment.”  

What they did not discuss, however, was the damage a convention could do to the United States and the Constitution if this were to be called.  

This pro-convention campaign is the one that has progressed the furthest and it works to add a federal balanced budget to the Constitution.  

Those working to advance the legislation are being primarily organized by the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force (BBATF) and its affiliate, the Center for State-Led National Debt Solutions (CSNDS). For more about the history of the Balanced Budget Amendment and those who are leading it, see here.  

This visit was, presumably, to garner support for Senate majority leader Shane Massey’s bill (S. 125).  

An outspoken critic of the BBA is none other than the governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster. Reporter Jamie Lovegrove with The Post and Courier tweeted that McMaster told him in an interview that calling such a convention could strip Americans of their gun rights and abolish the Electoral College.  

McMaster is not wrong, and he is right to worry. Although there is no telling what could happen or what rights laid out in the Constitution could be altered, they are up for grabs if a constitutional convention comes to fruition.  

There is simply too much at stake if we allow our elected officials to gamble with our rights as they continue to push legislation they cannot control.  

The many questions the Constitution leaves unanswered are how the delegates would be chosen, what the rules for a convention would be and by whom they would be written, and whether the convention would be limited to just one pre-assigned topic.  

Mike Huckabee and Scott Walker are visiting South Carolina to push an agenda they do not fully understand towards people who do not want it. These men did not serve the people of South Carolina, they do not know the needs of the constituents, and more importantly, they do not know the needs of the country overall.   

It is time we stand up to Mike Huckabee and Scott Walker, their agenda, and make it known we do not want leaders without knowledge of the state and severely lacking in federal leadership making decisions for people they have never represented.