All Presidents are figureheads - and increasingly so. Much of the government has a naturally progressive-left-statist DNA (yes, also including IC and Defense), and thus are programmed to move one direction only. Budgets are also mostly on autopilot as well. Huge internal and external interest groups surroun these programs (ie, the deep state) which make change nearly impossible.
My conclusion is that this is all supported by Federal Reserve printed money, massive debt, and now, zero interest rates.
This governance model has also become a global phenomenon.
1913 was the year the 16th and 17th Amendments were ratified, and the Federal Reserve was created.
Very unlucky year for America.
Not really. The republic was KIA in the Civil War and we've evolved into an oligarchy which is the most common form of government today.
(Take away the D's and R's ideologies to see the "men behind the curtain".)
My friend, there is so much apparent hysteria (almost like Leftist hysteria on global warming) about the national debt.
I would suggest you read “Will America’s Massive Debt Really Doom Us/” by Ken Fisher of Ken Fisher Investments, in the Sept. 22 issue of USA today. Here is a summary:
** $23 trillion debt vs. $21 trillion GDP = 103% (lower than Japan, higher than Germany)
** Federal government owes 25%+ of debt lowering it to $16.7 trillion or 67% of GDP
** America’s hard assets (collateral) is $175.3 trillion or 10 times national debt
** Solvency is not about paying debt off but making interest payments which currently is 9.8% of tax revenues
** Interest was 8.15% 30 years ago now about 2%
** America can borrow at 1.62%; Turkey at 15.18%
Debt does not loom over America
We need to start working to abolish as many departments, bureaus, and agencies as we can.
Even necessary ones. We can always replace them with a new agency stuffed with our people. JFK did it, replacing the Republican-leaning Bureau of the Budget with a new Office of management and Budget, which got filled with Democrat-leaning bureaucrats.
The Federal Reserve should be abolished.