Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, Congress was too preoccupied spending billions more on military aid for foreign countries and banning TikTok to pay attention to the looming bankruptcy of the two largest federal entitlement programs.

Many in Congress no doubt believe they can ignore the impending bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare because they can count on the Federal Reserve to do the "dirty work" of cutting real benefits and raising taxes. This result can be produced via the hidden, and regressive, "inflation tax."

The Federal Reserve makes the debt-financed welfare-warfare state possible by monetizing the federal debt. This is one reason why, even though interest on the debt is now the third largest item in the federal budget behind Social Security and Medicare and ahead of military spending, there are so few in Congress serious about cutting welfare or warfare. Those few who seek real spending cuts in welfare are smeared as "heartless" while those seeking real cuts in warfare are smeared as "anti-American" by the uniparty.