There’s a great meme I saw recently bopping around the Internet.
It is an oft-used-for-memes three-picture set of actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Cillian Murphy. Here’s this particular three block exchange:
DiCaprio: “The Constitution was designed to limit government.”
Murphy: “Well, it doesn’t. So now what?”
DiCaprio: <Squints in anger at Murphy.>
I’ve LONG felt like Murphy when engaging with other conservatives. Who keep citing our nation’s founding document as if it’s the end of every discussion - and the solution to every problem.
Except, of course, it’s not. DC certainly doesn’t think so. And if DC doesn’t? It doesn’t matter who does.
We are currently being served up yet another reminder of this fact. Behold yet another Continuing Resolution (CR) debate - with the the threat of yet another government shutdown.
The Constitution bestows upon the Congress the power of the purse. Congress is supposed to use that power to pass actual budgets. Each with 12 separate appropriations bills, each debated and voted upon.
This acts to limit government. You can’t hide trillions in stupid spending in 12 small chunks the way you can in One Big….
Which is why Congress hasn’t passed a budget since 1996. And let us now contemplate just how huge that three decade hiatus has made government.
Remember Barack Obama’s 2009 $787 billion “Stimulus?” We’ve been CR-ing ever since. Which means we have been spending Obama’s “Stimulus” money - every year since. Plus the customary CR +5% here and +8% there and…. Because a CR bakes in ALL previous spending - and then some.
Which also means the $4.6 trillion in total Covid “emergency” spending? Has also been spent every year since. Baked into that delicious national debt goodness upon which we will all soon be dining.
The Constitution’s point of a government shutdown was to use it to rein in government when it was out of control. DC has warped it into a weapon against anyone trying to rein in our out-of-control government.
Another morbidly hilarious aspect of this? As nauseatingly huge as is the federal government? When it (actually only partially) shuts down? Almost no one really notices. It is so un-impactful, Obama had to gin up fake pain to augment the lack of real pain.
The reason the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution the way they did? Is because they knew the real damage government can do. So they wanted to limit that damage.
To wit: We are hurtling towards an actual national security crisis. And the federal government is hugely contributing to it.
We are in a “space race” (of sorts) with Communist China. The space in question - is wireless spectrum. That’s the bandwidth we use for everything from cell phones all the way down to your car key fobs.
Spectrum is a finite resource. Each country has but a limited amount with which to work. And it exists in varying degrees of utility.
The race with in which we are engaged with China? Is to be the first country to fully deploy the cellular Fifth Generation (5G) wireless network.
The winning country gets to set all sorts of global standards - and emplace all sorts of regulations. Having China be that country? Would be highly problematic.
As we’ve just seen yet again here….
FCC Denies Second Batch of ‘Bad Labs’ Controlled By China:
“(T)he Federal Communications Commission took its second set of enforcement actions to address the threats posed by ‘bad labs.’ These are labs that review and approve electronics for use in the U.S. but are ultimately owned or controlled by a foreign adversary….
“Private test labs and certification bodies are responsible for overseeing the testing and certification of all devices that get authorized for import or sale in the U.S. to ensure they comply with FCC rules and do not contain prohibited equipment that threatens national security.”
If China is first to 5G? They will be applying this…loose approach to standards and regulations - without any backstop whatsoever. That would be HIGHLY problematic.
To defeat China, the US private sector needs more spectrum. And this is where a real government shutdown rears its ugly head.
The US’s federal government currently holds about 60% of the available US spectrum. And much of it is of high to very high utility. And shocker: The government is using it HIGHLY inefficiently.
The private sector has gotten US this far on the other 40%. And that spectrum is quickly filling up - despite the creative and novel ways the private players have found to maximize its use.
If we are to continue to speed forward? We need the the government to improve its spectrum efficiencies and consolidate its use. Which will clear a LOT of it - to then make it available for sale to the private sector.
Except here comes the real government shutdown: The federal agencies in possession of the spectrum - steadfastly refuse to do anything at all to help out the private sector:
“The government’s refusal to clear wireless spectrum is a result of ongoing debates and conflicts over the allocation and use of radio frequencies. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) are involved in these discussions, which often involve national security considerations and the need for coordination between federal and non-federal use.”
The likes of the Defense Department (DoD) and the National Security Agency (NSA) hold a lot of the government’s spectrum. So “national security” is a government shutdown wet blanket often thrown over any attempts to privatize any of the spectrum.
In May, Congressional Republicans were attempting via a reconciliation package to free up some DoD spectrum. Washington Democrat Senator - and permanent government defender - Maria Cantwell immediately went into government shutdown mode….
But it is absolutely not a national security threat to have the DoD (and the NSA, and…) more efficiently use their spectrum. So as to consolidate it - and make more of it available to the private sector. I mean, they hold 60% of it. There is PLENTY of room for improvement there.
You know what is a national security threat? US private 5G providers running out of spectrum thanks to the ongoing, rolling government spectrum shutdown.
And China winning the spectrum space race.