The WWS has been growing like a cancer for more than 100 years since both the income tax was legitimatized with the 16th amendment and Federal Reserve was created in 1913. The New Deal, which by the way began under President Hoover (a big government Republican) and then FDR piled on with more entitlement programs, such as the Ponzi scheme known as Social Security, which is embedded in our political culture.
President Johnson’s Great Society programs were a great leap forward…Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965 among other entitlement programs enacted during his presidency and the Vietnam War was expanded to stop the fallacious “domino theory” from becoming a reality. Undeclared wars since then have the basis of US foreign policy. Supported by both Democrats and Republicans, our bipartisan foreign policy is responsible for the growth of the military-industrial complex. The Washingtonians are the front guys for the MIC, the Federal Reserve, and the Deep State.
Not once in his address did Biden mention the Federal Reserve, the culprit for the boom-bust cycle nor the nefarious workings of the Deep State. Biden is the quintessential puppet of the entrenched DC establishment.
But the real crisis in DC is that the president, members of Congress and most federal judges and Supreme Court justices have violated their oaths to defend the constitution. Why? Virtually all federal spending is unauthorized by Article I, Section 8. Here is what the constitution states about legitimate federal government spending. Unfortunately, the courts have interpreted Art. 1, Sec. 8 to mean that the Congress can spend on literally anything. The pesky general welfare clause has been used by the Supreme Court to validate the welfare spending even though the constitution does not give the Congress the authority to spend money for social programs and create a retirement program, and medical care programs, etc.
There is a way out of the WWS---which will be discussed in future essays. It will take a monumental effort to turn America to a limited government republic. The first steps must be taken soon otherwise the WWS will cause the budget to spiral out of control and the endless war mentally in DC will get the US involved in another war. This time with a nuclear armed adversary.
Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle. Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.