The are a lot of good people in America.

We see this on a daily basis through the innumerable acts of kindness that make our lives better. Whether we are talking about family, friends, or total strangers doing good for our benefit, it is clear that the vast majority of our nation’s citizens care deeply about our country and communities.

Moreover, a vast number of professionals—healthcare workers, farmers, teachers, firefighters, engineers, police officers, childcare workers, civil servants, construction crews, and many others—devote themselves to doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. We also must recognize the often invisible but vital work that the members of our armed services do every day to keep our country safe; we can count ourselves very fortunate in this regard.

So how exactly is it that we find ourselves so often governed or controlled by crooks and influence peddlers?

The short answer is that government has always been a honeypot of cash for the unscrupulous to dip into. This is a problem that is not peculiar to America, but it has grown throughout our own country as the size and scope of our government has grown in the decades since World War Two for one simple reason: Public cash sloshing about with minimal oversight has proven to be a bonanza for those who are adept at inventing ever more sneaky ways to steal it or finding avenues to turn their public duties into easy wealth. If you don’t believe this to be the case, start Googling the net worths of prominent public officials and ask yourself how they managed to accrue their astonishing fortunes.

The well-meaning proponents of injecting government into every facet of our lives are typically not themselves doing so with criminal intent. They are often firmly convinced that an all-powerful government will, given enough tax increases and regulations, eventually banish all want and misery, ensure perfect justice, and somehow create a paradise on earth despite our many human imperfections.

Unfortunately, the true believers in the goodness of government are the best friends that clever and insatiable criminals have ever had because trillions upon trillions of dollars of government spending can never be adequately accounted for; worming oneself into a position to control this tsunami of money creates incredible opportunities for graft and bribery, and few are ever punished severely enough—if they are caught at all—to even begin to discourage the many wrongdoers who are gobbling hungrily at the public till.

Corruption tends to breed more corruption because even those who are trying to do they jobs honestly quickly figure out that reporting the malfeasance all around has a nasty habit of boomeranging right back on them. Crooks in high places know how to use the media, the courts, our systems of governance, and a few well-placed words in the right ears to punish anyone with the temerity to report their suspicions.

Worse yet, our criminal elite is quite expert at utilizing the same methods that they use to destroy truth tellers to destroy the truth itself. Just look at the disconnect that now exists between what Americans believe to be true and the onslaught of official lies used to confuse us. A startling 71% percent of Americans in an NBC News poll earlier this year asserted America is headed in the wrong direction, yet our elected leaders, political appointees, career bureaucrats, and their co-conspirators in the news media continue to push the Panglossian fantasy that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. To assert otherwise is to risk being labeled at bigot, a looney, a conspiracy theorist—or all three. 

The pervasiveness of the gaslighting that now passes for reality in America is truly terrifying. If, as the saying goes, truth is the first casualty of war, it is abundantly clear we are at war with our nation’s current leadership, which is a situation that is certainly unprecedented in the history of our country.

We are left, therefore, with a single, obvious question: How can we, understanding the challenge today facing us, best do battle with the criminal elites ruling us with intimidation and lies?

We could, of course, vastly increase the punishments meted out to those engaged in acts of official corruption—I suspect there is a large and enthusiastic audience in our nation ready for the public hangings of crooked politicians—but this is unlikely to ever happen. In addition, given the propensity of the media and government insiders to cover up for the liars and cheaters in charge, we are unlikely to ever see real consequences meted out to those who betray the public trust. The code of silence in our halls of government is now an entrenched feature, and prosecutors understand all too well that a core function of their jobs is to protect the favored few while ruthlessly persecuting those who are deemed a threat to the deeply corrupt and dysfunctional status quo. 

Justice in America is now a politicized commodity that finds pesky questions of right and wrong an irritant. If anyone is ever indicted for a crime in the future, they should remember to ask for a plea deal—complete with an official “Get Out of Jail Free” card—just like the one Hunter Biden was recently offered. However, the chances that you or I will ever be granted such a sweetheart escape is a big fat zero. Such kid glove treatment is available only to our criminal elite—and their families.

Temptation and opportunity are, of course, the foundational problems we must solve if we ever hope to reduce corruption in government, and it seems apparent there are only three ways this will come about.

First, legislatures at every level of government must assert their “power of the purse” and no longer allow funds to be dispersed by executive or bureaucratic fiat without proper authorization. Just watching President Biden, for instance, pour tens of billions of dollars in direct monetary aid and weaponry into Ukraine is a stomach churning exercise in wasteful and untraceable government spending. Congress has been extraordinarily remiss in their oversight responsibilities in this instance, and there are so many more examples—think of the recent Covid-19 panic and the climate change hoax—that have provided the same opportunities for looting the public treasury.

In addition, we need to dramatically and permanently reduce the size of government to one that we can both properly manage and afford. Our never ending debt crisis is a stupendous red flag, and we a busily creating legacy expenses every day that are utterly unsustainable in the long term. Our choices are to cut now—and cut to the bone we must—or default later. There is no middle ground anymore. This course of action will allow us to finally reconcile tax revenue and expenses so we can begin to live within the means we have available while—by reducing the amount of public money sloshing about—providing fewer opportunities for the criminally-minded who support themselves by snatching government cash where they can.

Finally, and I realize this goes against my injunction that we must reduce the size of government, we need a new Cabinet level department: a Secretary of the Audit with sufficient staff and unfettered subpoena powers to continuously audit all government expenditures and, should lax accounting be detected, the authority to immediately suspend or terminate that program. 

This federal audit function will have to, as a consequence of the threat it will pose to business as usual in Washington and elsewhere, possess sturdy protections from interference and meddling by the Executive branch, Congress, and the Courts except for the last resort available for all Cabinet officials who are failing to do their jobs—impeachment by the Senate. Aside from, we hope, focusing on rooting out corrupt business practices throughout our federal government and beyond, this new Cabinet-level department should also help to identify many government programs and agencies that can be reduced, consolidated, or eliminated in order to save money and reverse our disastrous arc of overspending. 

The existing Congressional Budget Office and departmental Inspectors General can perhaps be useful adjuncts to the functions of the Secretary of the Audit, but these are often only creatures of The D.C. Swamp themselves, so it might be best to shrink them in size or eliminate their functions altogether. 

The operating model we should adopt fighting today’s criminal elite is one we should be well aware of from our nation’s history: The brutal war against the gangsters who ruled so much of America during The Great Depression in the 1930’s. Blazing Tommy guns, trench coats, and snap-brim hats might be a step too far in today’s battle against official corruption, but I will leave that for others to decide during the tough years ahead.