Congress has abdicated the power of the purse

GOP passes $1.2 trillion omnibus bill, to the delight of the American monetary cartel.

In Federalist No. 58, James Madison wrote:

“The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold the purse that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of the government.”

He continues: “power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.”

Fast forward to 2024, and the House is making an absolute mockery of the once sacred power of the purse, abusing it over and over to enrich themselves and their friends in Washington and on Wall Street.

The Republican-led House of Representatives just passed a $1.2 trillion Omnibus spending bill, which will allow for the government to print and spend even more money through the end of the year, past the 2024 presidential election. Now that they secured the bag for the Beltway, lawmakers are all leaving for a two week Easter vacation.

The bill passed 286-134, with fewer than half of the House Republican majority voting yes, but it is expected to pass the Senate with ease.

For Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), it was both a betrayal of his own caucus and a total capitulation to the special interests that rule Washington, D.C. I suspect he has commenced the process of cashing out (like former speaker Kevin McCarthy, his predecessor), now that he’s done his job for the ruling class.

Which brings us to the more pressing issues: money and numbers.

Advocates for sound monetary policy and fiscal sanity just don’t have the manpower necessary in D.C. to shake things up and turn around the colossal spending spree.

There is just no evidence that we are moving in the direction of getting the debt spiral spending spree under control. Precisely the opposite is occurring, and it’s unfolding at a steadily increasing pace.

There’s only one Thomas Massie. There’s only one Chip Roy. There are only around 40 members of the House Freedom Caucus, the only organized entity in Congress that is consistently opposed to the spending sprees. That’s less than 10% of the House. In the Senate, it’s even worse. It’s basically senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and a select few others versus the world over there.

Meanwhile, the U.S. national debt is approaching $35 trillion. At the current spending rate, it may very well be $40 trillion at some point next year. The money printer-fueled economic system — which is as far away from free markets as it’s ever been — is rewarding the ruling class at the expense of the American everyman.

The Social Security Ponzi scheme, in addition to medicare and medicaid, continue rising to astronomical heights, accounting for around half of the annual federal budget. Those programs now cost Americans around $3.2 trillion annually. Nobody in Congress wants to reel it in because they don’t want to upset seniors and lose their votes.

We can at least take solace in the reality that almost every other country is destroying their own national and supranational currencies with debt and debasement. It’s a race to the bottom and every citizen within these jurisdictions who don’t have close proximity access to a money printer is losing that race.

Still, that doesn’t resolve America’s circumstances. It only gives Americans more time to acknowledge our position and plan accordingly.

The stewards of the American monetary system are knowingly destroying it to save their short term ambitions. Until that reality changes (if it ever does), it’s not worth holding out hope for them to suddenly and dramatically reverse course. The incentives are all backwards and the results are effectively locked in.

We aren’t going to vote our way out of these conditions through the democratic process.

For those of us outside of the cartel, we may want to consider embracing the freer, fairer systems that we can access today. This is why I like bitcoin, and it’s why many others like gold, silver, and other instruments that aren’t as easily corrupted as the fiat monetary system.

For over 230 years, patriotic Americans have wanted the dollar to be the powerful instrument that secures a robust free market system. But today, the stewards of the dollar use it to enrich themselves and their partners in the monetary cartel. At some point, the aggrieved party must give up on an abusive relationship. We The People need not embrace the abusive relationship any longer.