Con Con A Fools Errand

By Bruce Duncil, Guardian Colossus, 4/12/17

Nearly everyone agrees federal government spending has spiraled out of control and our politicians and bureaucrats will not fix the problem.

Many people believe the solution is to amend the US Constitution to require a 'balanced budget'; states are joining groups (Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force, Compact for America, etc.) to establish a convention to achieve that goal.

Here are 4 reasons why that approach is a fool's errand.

Mandatory federal spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already eat up 100% of tax receipts (every other dime the government needs to operate must be borrowed or printed); mandatory spending is statutorily required to grow to meet ever-expanding need. 'Balance' would require unsustainable taxes.

Amendment proponents claim states, such as Georgia, balance their budgets annually and the federal government should do likewise. They don't want anyone to know that Georgia does so only by accepting more than $10 Billion in federal money each year and always seeks every possible means of taking more. Federal 'balance' would force a reversal in the flow of these funds, racking up massive state deficits and likely bankruptcies as well as unsustainable taxes.

Congress is still Constitutional responsible to 'coin money and regulate its value at fixed standards of weight and measure' (Article I, Section 8).Article I, Section 10, though directed at the States, precludes making 'anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts' .Yet without an Amendment, congress passed a law in 1913 delegating its responsibility to a private corporation, the Federal Reserve. Subsequent unconstitutional legislation replaced our metal money with paper bank notes. Banks, thanks to 'fractional reserve' practices, today create our currency ('Federal Reserve Notes') only by issuing debt via loans, literally printing it out of thin air based on your commitment to repay what's borrowed. In this system, currency to pay the interest is NOT created with the initial debt; that additional currency for interest payment can be created only through creation of even more debt! This system is unsustainable and 'balancing' it must lead to an economic collapse.

Amendment proponents likewise don't want you to know the federal government is right now constitutionally limited (Article I, Section 8) to operate in only 17 areas of authority. The reason spending is out of control is because the federal government has expanded its own powers - and grown itself far beyond these Constitutional limits, operating dozens of unauthorized, but 'legal' departments and programs, not the least of which are those agencies collecting and redistributing this 'mandatory spending'. Words added to a document this government already ignores must prove equally worthless.

Bruce Duncil