source:  newswithviews

By: Devvy Kidd

June 5, 2023

Members of Congress all take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of these united States of America.  As I pointed out in my May 22, 2023 column, Debt Ceiling Battle – Same Old Band Aid:  Article 1 – The Legislative Branch, Section 8 – Powers of Congress presents a clear and concise list defining the only areas Congress can legislate and spend money.

Look to the Tenth Amendment:  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Joseph Story, associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court, said in Commentaries on the Constitution in 1833:

“Another not unimportant consideration is that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the state.”

I also wrote in my column cited above, “The bill referred to calls for a reduction in spending regardless of whether or not the spending is unconstitutional.  This is just another Band Aid.  Instead of abolishing all the unconstitutional agencies and cabinets – using a timely and rational plan – let’s keep funding all of it, just cut a few inches off the hem.”

The so-called debt reduction act or debt ceiling political theater solved nothing.  David Stockman summed it up best:  Speaker McCarthy’s Rotten Deal, June 3, 2023

“If there was ever any doubt, now we know: Speaker Kevin McCarthy has straw for brains and a Twizzlers stick for a backbone. He was within perhaps a few days of breaking the iron grip of America’s fiscal doomsday machine, yet inexplicably he turned tail and threw in the towel for a mess of fiscal pottage.

“We are referring, of course, to the impending moment when the US Treasury would have been forced to forgo scheduled vendor or beneficiary distributions in order to preserve incoming cash for interest payments and other priorities. That act of spending deferrals and prioritization would have obliterated the debt “default” canard once and for all, paving the way for a nascent fiscal opposition to regain control of the nation’s wretched public finances.

“And there should be no doubt that we were damn close to that crystalizing moment. After all, Grandma Yellen herself forewarned just last week on Meet The Press that absent a debt ceiling increase, the Treasury Department would have to prioritize payments and leave some bills unpaid:

“And my assumption is that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, there will be hard choices to make about what bills go unpaid,” Yellen said on NBC’s “Meet the Press…….“We have to pay interest and principle on outstanding debt. We also have obligations to seniors who count on Social Security, our military that expects pay, contractors who’ve provided services to the federal government, and some bills have to go unpaid….”

“And, of course, that prioritization and deferral could have been easily done. Federal receipts are now running about $450 billion per month, meaning that after paying $61 billion of interest, $128 billion for Social Security, $26 billion for Veterans and $47 billion for military pay and O&M there would still be $188 billion left to cover at least 50% of everything else.

“That is to say, no sweat with respect to servicing the public debt, and a lot of sweat among the constituencies that would have had payments delayed or reduced.

“So, yes, the GOP has truly earned the Stupid Party sobriquet. No ifs, ands or buts about it…As we said, the “compromise deal” is a hideous joke, and Kevin McCarthy truly does have sawdust for brains and a Twizzlers stick for a backbone.

“There is no other way to interpret the facts. In fact, just five months into his Speakership, McCarthy has already earned his place on the Wall of Shame right alongside of Speaker John Boehner and Speaker Paul Ryan.” Rest at link and well worth the time to read it; very detailed.   (David Stockman served in Congress from 1977-1981 and was Reagan’s OMB Director)

Of course, two of the key take-aways above:  “…….“We have to pay interest and principle on outstanding debt.” (bankers come first) and  “…after paying $61 BILLION of interest” – that would be interest on the “money” Congress – both parties – has borrowed to continue all the unconstitutional spending.  Once again, borrowing our own money from a central bank and then being forced to pay interest on it for well over 100 years is beyond outrageous.

(Deceased) Congressman John William Wright Patman’s words from a speech he made on September 30, 1941, entered into the Congressional Record. Patman was a Democrat who sat on the United States House Committee on Banking and Currency.

“When our Federal Government, that has the exclusive power to create money, creates that money and then goes into the open market and borrows it and pays interest for the use of its own money, it occurs to me that that is going too far. I have never yet had anyone who could, through the use of logic and reason, justify the Federal Government borrowing the use of its own money… I am saying to you in all sincerity, and with all the earnestness that I possess, it is absolutely wrong for the Government to issue interest-bearing obligations. It is not only wrong: it is extravagant. It is not only extravagant, it is wasteful. It is absolutely unnecessary.

“Now, take the Panama Canal bonds. They amounted to a little less than $50,000,000 — $49,800,000. By the time they are paid, the Government will have paid $75,000,000 in interest on bonds of less than $50,000,000. So, the Government is paying out $125,000,000 to obtain the use of $49,800,000. That is the way it has worked all along. That is our policy. That is our system. The question is: Should that policy be continued? Is it sane? Is it reasonable? Is it right, or is it wrong? If it is wrong, it should be changed.

“The Constitution of the United States does not give the banks the power to create money. The Constitution says that Congress shall have the power to create money, but now, under our system, we will sell bonds to commercial banks and obtain credit from those banks.

“I believe the time will come when people will demand that this be changed. I believe the time will come in this country when they will actually blame you and me and everyone else connected with this Congress for sitting idly by and permitting such an idiotic system to continue. I make that statement after years of study.

“We have what is known as the Federal Reserve Bank System. That system is not owned by the Government. Many people think that it is, because it says `Federal Reserve’. It belongs to the private banks, private corporations. So, we have farmed out to the Federal Reserve Banking System that is owned exclusively, wholly, 100 percent by the private banks — we have farmed out to them the privilege of issuing the Government’s money. If we were to take this privilege back from them, we could save the amount of money that I have indicated in enormous interest charges.” End

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.” –Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1820. FE 10:175

Steve Bannon was Trump’s chief strategist for the first seven months after Trump was elected in 2016.  Back in August 2022, Bannon delivered a speech to the sold-out CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) event in Dallas, TX.  This is a video of his speech.  At 19:32, he hammers on the fed; there’s more if you watch the video:

‘We don’t need to audit the Fed.  We need to end the Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve has usurped its power and the power of the American people and our elected representatives.  It’s the biggest con they have.  The Fed’s balance sheet is now about $9 trillion.

“The greatest export we have is the dollar but all of that rests on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren.  Those are all due bills or income due.  We’ve just cranked everything up. That’s what they’re talking about these ridiculous insane bills of trillions of dollars, because the Federal Reserve will print the money.”

The magical money machine that continues to crank out hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.  Debt-Limit Deal Won’t Restrict US Ability to Fund Ukraine – all borrowed debt heaped on us, our children and grandchildren.  This is one of the reasons we MUST get out of NATO.  Abolishing the Fed would stop all the unconstitutional spending as Congress would no longer have Santa Claus to keep showering them with worthless fiat currency.

H.R.2755 – Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act introduced by former Congressman Ron Paul in 2007.  ZERO cosponsors.

The Republican Party doesn’t want smaller government

If they did, they would have abolished unconstitutional cabinets, agencies and programs decades ago.  They had the majority in Congress for 18 months with Trump in the WH to get it done and they did nothing except continue spending.  The Democrat/Communist Party USA, the party of perversion and death, completely ignores the U.S. Constitution and their oath of office.

The Republican Party chants every two years during an election cycle, “Smaller government, less taxes.”  Have they even come close to making good on their promises?  NO.  No where in Art. 1 Sec. 8 does it authorize Congress to pass bills (then signed into “law”) for education, the EPA, HHS, Energy, agriculture (which includes food stamps which falls to each state). USAID (US Aid for International Development), student loans (Congress has NO authority to act as a bank), bailing out private corporations and banks and all the social welfare spending keeping Americans dependent upon mother government.  TRILLIONS IN BORROWED “MONEY”.  Eliminating all the unconstitutional cabinets, agencies and programs will also lower your tax burden.

That’s why the debt THEY incur continues to explode.  Congress after Congress. Those bills signed into “law” in the truest sense put you, me, our children and grand children into involuntary servitude for our entire lives, enriching the banking cabal known as the Fed.

Liberals (socialists) and progressives (communists) with their demands to fund after school programs, women’s health, funding armed police at schools and hundreds of other programs under cabinets all screech it’s perfectly legal under the General Welfare Clause.  Paul Engel, contributing writer at NWV’s, debunks that myth:

“General Welfare Clause

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; Article I, Section 8, Clause 1

“Notice the Constitution does not say the general welfare of the people of the United States, nor the general welfare of the States, but of the United States.”  Further down in his posting:

“In short, never before had it been considered that Congress would have the power to collect taxes to be used for anything it thought was good or for the general welfare. Mr. Madison went on to describe the dangers of granting Congress such power.

“If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their Own hands; they may a point teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object I have mentioned would admit of the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare.  Debate on the On the Cod Fishery Bill, granting Bounties, House of Representatives, February 3, 1792

“Mr. Madison recognized that if we gave Congress the power to determine what is and is not for the general welfare of the United States, then every portion of your life would be under the control of Congress. As we see today, Congress has inserted itself into education, traffic laws, and even state and local law enforcement.  While I did not mention religion as Mr. Madison has, it is only because Congress has abdicated their responsibility to oversee the courts, who have taken care to arbitrate religious views.  Because Congress routinely delegates their powers to the executive and judicial branches, we now live in a nation where literally everything is a federal case.”

THAT is what should be taught in public schools in America.  I highly encourage you to read his entire posting.  Knowledge is power and that is the true history of the Constitution to shove in your congress critter’s face (metaphorically speaking).

Lost jobs

Yes, abolishing unconstitutional cabinets, agencies and programs will eliminate tens of thousands of federal government jobs.  But, states will have to hire as they take back their power under the Tenth Amendment.  Too many federal jobs are nothing more than useless paper pushers.  I know.  I saw it first-hand when I worked for DoD.   Let the cry babies on the “left” yell and scream.  Well, buck up and face reality.  This nation was founded and flourished by a self-reliant, independent people who cherished liberty and freedom.

When my grandparents came from Sicily there was no welfare.  They found jobs doing anything they could to put food on the table and were still grateful to live in America.  So, take the baby bottle out of your mouth and grow up.  No one said life is fair but in this great country, Americans are blessed with the opportunity to make a good life for themselves and their family.  Not suck off the federal government teat for 50 years.

Those in unconstitutional agencies like USAID can go find a job with some “think tank”.  I have no doubt a plan can be worked out to protect pensions for federal employees with the states who do hire.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  If it doesn’t happen, there will be NO SAVING THIS REPUBLIC from absolute ruin. We are leaning over the cliff.

I lost my very good paying GS-11 job with the Air Force when I became a federal whistleblower.  It was no fun let me tell you.  But I did what I had to do because it was the right thing to do.  YOU were paying me for a job that the Inspector General determined – and which I had alleged – that could be done by a part-time civilian worker or even abolish the job.  So, yeah, I know what it’s like to lose a paycheck.  But, the very survival of our country is at stake.

It can’t be done overnight

Abolishing unconstitutional cabinets, agencies and programs can’t simply be erased from Monday to Tuesday.  A plan needs to be formulated to phase out operations over one year.  That gives plenty of time to give federal employees a good stretch to find another job, either at the state level or in the private sector.

Rep. Massie Introduces Bill to Abolish Federal Department of Education, Feb. 8, 2021

“Representative Thomas Massie announces that he has introduced H.R. 899, a bill to abolish the federal Department of Education. The bill, which is one sentence long, states, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022.”

“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development,” said Massie. “States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”

“The Department of Education began operating in 1980. On September 24, 1981, in his Address to the Nation on the Program for Economic Recovery, President Ronald Reagan said, “As a third step, we propose to dismantle two Cabinet Departments, Energy and Education. Both Secretaries are wholly in accord with this.

“Some of the activities in both of these departments will, of course, be continued either independently or in other areas of government. There’s only one way to shrink the size and cost of big government, and that is by eliminating agencies that are not needed and are getting in the way of a solution. Now, we don’t need an Energy Department to solve our basic energy problem. As long as we let the forces of the marketplace work without undue interference, the ingenuity of consumers, business, producers, and inventors will do that for us.

“Similarly, education is the principal responsibility of local school systems, teachers, parents, citizen boards, and State governments. By eliminating the Department of Education less than 2 years after it was created, we cannot only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children.”  That bill had 20 cosponsors, all Republicans.  Of course, it didn’t pass.  Rep. Massie Reintroduces Bill to Abolish Federal Department of Education, Feb. 14, 2023.  28 cosponsors, all Republicans.  Sitting there rotting while Republicans hold the majority in the House.  Wouldn’t want to lose any votes!

I didn’t create this mess.  The American people did by reelecting the same destroyers from both parties’ election after election.  Instead of throwing out incumbents during the primaries, Americans continue sending the same liars, crooks and thieves back to Congress come November when they have only two choices, R or D.  There are a handful of exceptions which I’m not going to list right now.

I sincerely hope Americans come to understand what just happened with the “debt ceiling” bill signed by the fake president, China Joe Biden, on June 3, 2023.  Most won’t or can’t even process the information.  What’s underway will make 2008 look like prosperity.