Who Owns America?

There's a question I wish more Americans would ask, especially with another election just weeks away.

Who actually runs this country?

We're told the answer is obvious. The American people. We elect our representatives, they go to Washington, and they're supposed to carry out our wishes.

Then explain why Washington keeps getting bigger, the national debt keeps climbing, and the same powerful institutions seem to survive every election untouched.

Republicans promise to shrink government. Democrats promise to make it work better. Both parties have spent decades building a federal government that consumes trillions of dollars, reaches into nearly every corner of American life, and leaves ordinary citizens wondering how much control they really have.

And the latest numbers should make every taxpayer furious.

Washington Is Spending Us Into the Ground

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the federal government ran an estimated $2 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2026. Federal spending increased by hundreds of billions of dollars, even as Washington collected more money from taxpayers.

Think about that. The government took in more revenue and still managed to dig itself a deeper hole.

We're now spending roughly a trillion dollars a year just on interest on the national debt. That's money that buys no new roads, builds no schools, and strengthens no communities. It pays for the borrowing that politicians from both parties have piled up for decades.

And who's going to pay for it?

Our children and grandchildren, of course. The people who had no vote when these obligations were created will spend their working lives dealing with the consequences.

Yet listen to Washington during election season. Everybody has a plan. Everybody promises fiscal responsibility. Everybody knows exactly how to fix the problem.

Then the spending continues.

President Trump returned to Washington promising to challenge the establishment and rein in a government that had grown far beyond its proper role. Many Americans voted for him precisely because they were tired of watching both parties make promises they had no intention of keeping.

That makes the latest deficit especially difficult to ignore. Republicans control the White House and Congress. They have an obligation to explain why the federal government is still spending so much more than it collects.

Americans who voted for smaller government have every right to demand results.

The Government That Never Loses

Here's what bothers me most about Washington.

Presidents come and go. Congressional majorities change. Political careers rise and fall. Yet the federal bureaucracy remains, exercising enormous authority over Americans who have almost no practical way to hold individual officials accountable.

Federal agencies write rules that can determine whether a small business survives, how farmers use their land, what products Americans can buy, and what standards their children encounter in school.

Congress created much of this machinery and continues to fund it. When the rules become unpopular, lawmakers complain about bureaucrats as though they had nothing to do with giving them power.

Meanwhile, lobbyists and corporate interests spend fortunes trying to influence the people who write those rules.

If you're a large corporation with an army of attorneys and government-relations specialists, you can afford to navigate Washington. You can lobby for favorable regulations, seek subsidies, and sometimes help shape rules that make life harder for smaller competitors.

If you're a family-owned business trying to make payroll, good luck.

We've built a system in which political access is enormously valuable. The people with the deepest pockets can afford it. Everyone else gets to live with the results.

And we're supposed to believe this is government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Even Elections Are Becoming a Federal Power Struggle

Consider what happened last Friday.

A federal judge struck down the Trump Justice Department's policy of obtaining state voter rolls and checking them against federal immigration records to identify potentially ineligible voters.

The administration argues that the effort is necessary to protect election integrity. That's a legitimate concern. Americans have every right to expect accurate voter rolls and elections in which only eligible citizens cast ballots.

But the ruling also raises a serious question about the limits of Washington's authority. The judge found that the federal government's approach exceeded its legal powers and threatened protections for eligible voters.

I want secure elections. I also want the federal government to respect the constitutional boundaries that keep power from becoming concentrated in Washington.

Those principles belong together.

States have primary responsibility for administering elections, subject to federal constitutional and statutory protections. If their systems need improvement, elected officials should make the case publicly and pursue changes through lawful means.

The temptation to reach for more federal authority whenever a problem arises is one of the habits that got us here.

And it's a temptation that doesn't disappear just because our preferred party occupies the White House.

Washington Has Plenty of Help

Government power doesn't operate in isolation anymore.

During COVID, Americans watched federal officials pressure social media companies over information the administration considered misinformation. The companies controlled platforms where millions of citizens debated government policies that were affecting their jobs, businesses, churches, and families.

We also saw how closely federal health agencies and pharmaceutical companies were connected through funding, research, regulation, and purchasing decisions.

These relationships deserve far more public scrutiny than they receive.

The same concern extends to the broader relationship between Washington and corporate America. Companies seek favorable treatment from regulators. Government agencies rely on private contractors. Lobbyists move between corporate offices and federal positions.

The arrangements vary, and many are perfectly legal. But Americans should be asking whether the system consistently serves the public or increasingly serves the people who know how to work it.

Look at what ordinary families are facing. Housing is increasingly expensive. Borrowing costs are punishing. Small businesses struggle with rising expenses. Parents worry about what kind of country their children will inherit.

Meanwhile, Washington spends trillions, argues endlessly, and expects Americans to be grateful whenever politicians announce another government program.

At some point, the public has to ask what we're getting for all this money and power.

The Country Belongs to Its Citizens

This is why I believe the New Right matters.

For too long, conservative politics was content to argue over tax rates, spending priorities, and which party could manage Washington more efficiently.

Those arguments matter. But the deeper question concerns the enormous amount of power that has accumulated in Washington and the powerful institutions surrounding it.

We need a government that protects our borders, defends our liberties, respects the Constitution, and remembers that its authority comes from the people.

We need a Congress willing to reclaim responsibility for the laws Americans live under. We need federal agencies whose powers are clearly limited and whose decisions can be challenged. We need a political class that understands taxpayers are under no obligation to finance Washington's ambitions indefinitely.

And we need Republicans who remember why voters sent them to Washington in the first place.

Americans didn't demand change because they wanted a different group of people managing the same bloated system. They wanted the system itself brought under control.

That requires confronting powerful interests, including some that have grown comfortable inside the Republican Party. It requires saying no to spending that benefits politically connected groups. It requires returning decisions to states, communities, families, and individuals wherever the Constitution allows.

Most of all, it requires elected officials to accept that the power they exercise was never theirs to own.

I think millions of Americans are beginning to understand just how much authority has slipped out of their hands. They see it in the bills they pay, the rules they live under, and the distance between what politicians promise and what Washington delivers.

The midterms are approaching. Politicians will once again tell us that everything depends on giving them power.

Fine. Then they should be prepared to explain what they're going to do with it, what they're going to give up, and how much of it they're willing to return to the American people.

Because after decades of broken promises, growing debt, and an expanding federal government, Americans have every reason to demand an answer.

Who owns America?

We do. And it's time Washington started acting like it.