You mean the Federal government is the same as the states?
and can point to no power in the Constitution authorizing Congress to issue paper money, that precise power having been considered and rejected in the Constitutional Convention.
Congress has the power: To coin money, regulate the value thereof
If you want to make the argument that they can produce fiat coins but not fiat bills, go for it.
As for the benefits of deflation
That's funny. The Japanese had 15 years of the benefits of deflation. They still haven't recovered.
If you think that Federal Reserve Notes are “coins”, why should we even bother to have a Constitution? Really, this is like Alice in Wonderland:
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’
* * *
And as for Japan, they still haven’t recovered (haven’t they?) because the government protected the zombie banks and the zombie borrowers. Someone who is ostensibly interested in a Free Republic, ought not to mischaracterize failures of government as failures of a free market.