I confirmed Congress’s spending is “. . . in rebellion to our Constitution and its defined and limited grants of power for which Congress may lay and collect taxes.”
Musk is right.
Maybe he should have been recommending that some congresscritters get laid off along with other government employees.
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Well, this is a tax thread, after all, started by John. Seems appropriate, trying to keep it on focus.
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I may have missed that part 
I see neither Trump nor Musk have come up with a remedy to deal with Congress’s refusal to balance the annual budget, and stop Congress from enslaving our children and grandchildren with their profligate and thieving deficit spending. How sad.
JWK
We are here today and gone tomorrow, but what is most important is what we do in-between and is what our children will inherit and remember us by.
Very sad. Yes. It’s tough to herd 500 cats though. We voters owe a president who wants to balance the budget a Congress that is willing to help. I know I need to work harder in my state, as only 4 of the 9 House Reps are GOP (and one is a flaming RINO), and both Senators are fully recalcitrant D’s. Even having a majority in Congress isn’t good enough when it is populated with too many members who don’t care about deficit spending.
Libs want to cast Trump as a dictator (and to be blunt, Musk has no power here whatsoever). But if Trump were to get out of this Congress what you and I want to see, it would take dictatorial powers for him to make it happen.
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I think supporting a REMEDY to stop Congress from enslaving our children and grandchildren with their profligate and thieving deficit spending, is the first step in this battle.
Republican Governors stand with Trump, want a Balanced Budget Amendment.
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See: Gov. Little and Republican Governors: We Stand with President Trump and DOGE
Office of the Governor
Friday January 10, 2025
"Boise, Idaho – Governor Brad Little joined the nation’s Republican governors in sending a joint letter today to Congressional leadership expressing their support for President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Initiative, as well as emphasizing the importance of balancing the federal budget.
"In my 2024 State of the State and Budget address, I announced I signed on as a member of the Governors Debt Council for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The runaway freight train of federal spending has got to stop. It’s not right. It’s not what the founders envisioned for our great country. The U.S. Constitution gives the states the power to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment, and we want Congress to live within the people’s means – just like American families and the State of Idaho do,” Governor Little said.
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Perhaps Gov. Little, and the Governor’s Debt Council, ought to encourage Trump to promote the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment, which is what our Founders envisioned and would actually force " . . . Congress to live within the people’s means – just like American families and the State of Idaho do . . . ”
Gov. Ron DeSantis touts Constitutional Convention to write a Balanced Budget Amendment
https://www.mountainstatespolicy.org/governors-press-for-a-balanced-budget-amendment
DeSantis told reporters during the joint Idaho press conference:
“I am convinced that you are not going to have Congress all of a sudden change its behavior for the long term. I think the reason we’ve gotten into this with respect to fiscal is because there are certain incentives for the people that are in Washington to behave the way they do. And we need to change those incentives.”
He continued:
“If Idaho and Montana join the fight, that gets us to 29 there’s a couple other states that are on the precipice as well. You need 34 states to trigger Article Five, where you would actually write an amendment and then eventually send it to the states for ratification."
I wonder why Governor DeSantis is so interested in triggering Article V, calling for a constitutional convention with the dangers involved, to write a balanced budget amendment, when our Founders provided a specific procedure to deal with any deficits created by Congress’s borrowing during the course of a fiscal year. That procedure is found in the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment
Perhaps Ron DeSantis ought to defend our Founder’s remedy, which would create a very real moment of accountability for each State’s Congressional Delegations if they should borrow during the course of a fiscal year, which would then require them to bring home a bill to their own State Legislature to pay an apportioned share out of their own State Treasury to extinguish the deficit caused by Congress borrowing.
Keep in mind that every single balanced budget amendment produced since the 1980s, (excluding the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment) would make it constitutional for Congress to not balance the budget on an annual basis. Our Founder’s remedy, already in our Constitution, would actually do what Ron DeSantis indicates his goal is. So, why has he not mentioned our Founder’s procedure to deal with a deficit caused by Congress’s borrowing?
.JWK
“I have also repeatedly given my opinion that there is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda. Congress might try to limit the Convention to one amendment or to one issue, but there is no way to assure that the Convention would obey. After a Convention is convened, it will be too late to stop the Convention if we don’t like the agenda. The meeting in 1787 ignored the limit placed by the Confederation Congress ‘for the sole and express purpose.’ “ Chief Justice, Warren Burger, stated in 1988,
What the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment does, and does not do.
What the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment does is, create a very real moment of accountability for each State’s Congressional Delegation when Congress borrows to meet expenses during the course of a fiscal year. And it does this by making them return home with a bill in hand which makes their State’s Legislature responsible for paying an apportioned share to extinguish the debt created by Congress’s borrowing, just as our Founders intended!
The FSBBA stops Congress from adding to the national debt year after year, after year.
The FSBBA does not limit the amount of revenue Congress may raise.
The FSBBA does not limit Congress’s current spending.
The FSBBA allows each State to raise its apportioned share to extinguish a debt created by Congress’s borrowing, in its own chosen way.
The FSBBA does not forbid any State to have an “income tax”.
So what, if any, is Ron DeSantis’ objection to supporting the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment? Why is DeSantis so eager to convene a constitutional convention to write a balanced budget amendment, when the FSBBA is in fact a no-nonsense BBA, and would carry out our Founders explicitly stated intentions?
JWK
“We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves.”— Thomas Jefferson
Skyrocketing costs: check
Exploding deficits: check
Phantom returning big manufacturing: check
Governor DeSantis needs to reveal the precise text of the Balanced Budget Amendment he supports.
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See: Control an Otherwise Uncontrollable Congress With States-Backed Amendments
June 9th, 2025
"When Congress fails to deliver the goods on its own, it’s going to take the people to do it — Congress’ boss. And Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has been promoting the exact means to do it.
As a three-term congressman before moving into the Sunshine State governor’s mansion, he’d seen it all before. So he’s been pushing for a state-initiated balanced budget amendment to bypass Congress."
What is most remarkable is, Ron DeSantis has yet to present the exact text of the balanced budget amendment which he has been pushing “to bypass Congress".
Keep in mind every one of the supposed “balanced budget amendments” offered since the 1980s as a Congressional Resolution, excluding the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment, would make it constitutional for Congress to not balance the annual budget if adopted.
DeSantis has been a genuine no-nonsense “conservative” Governor, has done well for the people of Florida and it would be to his benefit to reveal the precise text of the Balanced Budget Amendment he supports, rather than expecting his supporters and the American people to buy a pig in a poke.
Perhaps DeSantis is on board with the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment, which is our Founder’s explicitly expressed remedy when the monies Congress has raised during the course of a fiscal year are found insufficient for the “Public Exigencies”.
With the United States now having a debt exceeding $136 Trillion, including unfunded debt liabilities, and annual interest payments of about $1Trillion, Congress has broken a sacred trust which our Founders held dearly.
JWK
We are here today and gone tomorrow, but what is most important is what we do in-between and is what our children will inherit and remember us by.