The real nuclear option

Limited government under our Constitution wasn't designed to be pretty, compassionate, or bipartisan. It was designed to preserve individual freedom.

The Constitution is widely lauded for creating three coequal branches of government and setting them apart (separate) as watchdogs – and as power-hungry politicians – each against the other (coequal).

The founders knew humanity better than we do today. Because they knew the evil that lives inside each and every one of us, they tucked away in the Constitution another bulwark of freedom.

It's often said that it takes two to party. So it is in our representative government. The president needs to spend money to make the bureaucracy work. The Congress needs to allocate money before it can be spent.

Remember the old saying, in force long before the Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules." Here the Constitution tipped the scales in favor of the people, through the House of Representatives, with its two-year election cycle. It is the House – and the House alone – that has the power of the purse. They can fund the executive – or not – as they so choose.

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The Federal Reserve can print and pollute the money supply all the way into the stratosphere – but it can't allocate one single devalued red penny to the executive to spend.

The Senate can advise and consent all day long – but their vote is nowhere required.

The House – and the House alone – can, and if they choose to do so will, bring an overreaching judiciary (except for judges' salaries) or a power-mad executive to heal quickly and decisively. They can cut off the money. No money, no paychecks. No paychecks, no retirement. No office. No equipment. No nothing. Turn out the lights and go home, baby.

Let's say (hypothetically, of course) that the Congress disagreed with the president on the wisdom of flooding the country with illegal aliens. The House can deprive the agencies tasked with border security of any funding. No money for paychecks. No money for retirements. No money for bullets, building rent or upkeep, lights, heat, or flushing toilets.

Border states would then be forced to deal with the issue of people crossing over the border into their state illegally. That's one reason state governors have the National Guard. It's for emergencies. Would state governors like that responsibility added to their plate? Probably not. Would they do it? Certainly yes. Their population would demand it.

Government "shutdowns" we have witnessed in the past were political theater. Employees got a vacation. Politicians got sound bites. News agencies got readers and viewers and sold advertising. The money was all paid back in spades when the drama was over. The bureaucracy went on its merry way, thumbing its nose at the taxpayers. In a real shutdown, they won't.

Boehner is gone as speaker. The House needs to elect someone willing to show the executive and judiciary where the fault line in the constitutional bedrock stands.

Media wishing to interview Craige McMillan, please contact [email protected].