Another $1.7 trillion

Here's why they can't stop printing...

Last week, Congress passed a $1.7T government funding bill.

The 4'000 page bill was revealed by Senate leaders on Tuesday morning, leaving just 48 hours until the vote on Thursday.

Senators feeling responsible to first read what's being signed into law (crazy, I know...) would have had to sift through 83 pages per hour, non-stop for two straight days.

Congress now routinely passes most major legislation in multi-thousand-page omnibus bills, secretly crafted at the 11th hour of each year, with no time to review and in front of a nearly empty House chamber.

Of course, there's always a pretext for rushing through such massive spending bills - usually some type of supposed emergency.

The narrative this time around was the looming specter of a government shutdown come January.

January is when the opposition party takes its elected seats and Congress would presumably become unable to pass any meaningful legislation - including bills to finance itself.

Never mind that the bill had unprecedented bi-partisan support and sailed through the Senate with 68-29 voting in favor.

It's all just theatrics.

When it comes to paper money, there is no opposition, only an overwhelming agreement to print more.

In fact, the only real urgency is to get these bills signed into law before anyone can possibly know what's really in them...

They're not meant to be read.

But North Carolina House Rep Dan Bishop and his team managed the impressive feat of actually combing through the monstrosity.

Here are a few highlights:

• $47B to help support Ukraine's efforts to defend itself against Russia's attack
• $38B for emergency disaster assistance
• $1.4B for the UN
• $900M for federal land acquisitions
• $410M for border security in Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman.
• $375M for a new FBI headquarters, location to be decided...
• $200M for gender equity programs in Pakistan
• $108M for "environmental justice"
• $65M to protect salmon
• $26M for the so-called "Office of Diversity and Inclusion"
• $3M for a LBTQ+ museum in New York
• $118K for Georgia Tech students to study if Thanos could really snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet (not kidding.)

Some of you probably agree with a few of these items. Say, if you enjoy eating salmon roll sushi, or if you're a big Marvel fan.

But that's beside the point.

The salient point is that all your labor and worldly possessions are being collateralized to finance massive amounts of debt-fueled spending which you have zero control over.

Remember the outrage over FTX surreptitiously hallowing out user assets in exchange for empty paper promises of repayment?

That's pretty much how the entire system currently works.

If you don't appreciate having your savings debased by endless money printing, you may want to consider a more scarce and censorship-resistant form of money.

Credits: https://andrewaxelrod.io/