Roth: Where is the accountability? We have rampant moral hazards from government; who will stop them from destroying everything?

When our country was founded as a representative constitutional republic, the size, scope, and purview of government was intentionally limited. The government’s role was to uphold and protect the natural rights of Americans as individuals, and it was structured to make sure the individuals had a say in any decisions.

It made sense, given the limited nature of government, to also have limited accountability for those involved in government, including the people’s representatives.

Today, the government at all levels has exploded, moving far past its original purpose. Its size, scope, and purview are staggering. At the federal level, it moves around multiple trillions of dollars each year and it has incurred $30 trillion in debt on our behalf — with actual obligations and promises far exceeding that total. Rules and regulations are so numerous, it’s hard to get an accounting on all of them. And over the past couple of years, the government at all levels has made decisions that impacted individual health and well-being and the overall economy via actions where elected official overstepped their authority.

All of this creates substantial moral hazard — actions whereby individuals or groups take on additional risks because they don’t bear the full, or in some cases, any, consequences of their actions.

Take the current state of inflation. Rampant inflation was the predictable outgrowth of a slew of bad monetary, fiscal, and other government policy decisions, and it is substantially impacting your financial position. Those who are charged with ensuring the economy runs well (something no government official should be charged with to begin with), made decisions that directly caused this outcome. They publicly stated over and over that it wouldn’t be a problem. Yet, while we have to suffer the financial consequences, what happens to them?

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who spent a large part of 2021 saying that high inflation wasn’t a substantial risk and who stood by while President Biden added $1.9 trillion in incremental spending via the “American Rescue Plan,” now has come out and said, “Well, look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take," and that “there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy … that I didn’t, at the time, didn’t fully understand."

Well, at least she admitted it, which is more than one can say for most. But, what kind of accountability does she have? In the years between being fed chair and secretary of the treasury, she made a reported $7.2 million giving economic speeches, and yet she couldn’t see the inflation that you and I all knew was coming (or purposely downplayed it)!

Will she be fired? Will she lose status and benefits? Or will she keep on contributing to and participating in this moral hazard and then go back to raking in millions for speeches when the next president comes into office?

What about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell? His actions were so behind the curve, that he was still conducting accommodative monetary policy for a year and three quarters after the June 5, 2020, intraday-high record of the Nasdaq Composite, and for two months after the U.S. was already experiencing a 40-year high in inflation. His punishment? Being reappointed for a new term as fed chairman.

The list goes on and on. Nancy Pelosi has voted for much of our national debt, yet her “punishment” is making a fortune trading on information whit which she may possess special insight or even ability to act. Anthony Fauci and a whole slew of bad actors misled the public and overstepped their boundaries creating physical health issues, mental health issues, and economic issues in their wake. What kind of responsibility will these individuals bear? The sad answer is none.

Nationally syndicated radio host and TV personality Jesse Kelly has been active in suggesting trials. In one recent tweet he said, “Not one politician or government official has stood trial for what they did to us during COVID. In fact, not one national Republican is even saying they should. That’s why I know they’re gonna do it again. They’re not afraid. They should be, but they’re not afraid.”

And that’s the truth. There are no consequences, so what stops this from happening over and over? The government needs to be restored to its original purposes, but in the meantime, if individuals are going to have the responsibilities and power that they currently do — overseeing trillions of spending, interfering in individual health and more — they need to have accountability as well.

We need to put better people in place and create consequences for their actions, or the ultimate consequence will be the destruction of everything.