The Democrats and mainstream media are having a hard time with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They claim it has created a constitutional crisis because the president of the United States wants to know where all our money is going.
Let’s be clear: There is a constitutional crisis, just not the one the left imagines.
Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution explicitly states: “A regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.” This is not a suggestion — it is a directive. Congress, which holds the power of the purse, has a constitutional obligation to publish transparent records of how tax dollars are spent.
When Elon Musk tells the American people that basic accounting practices are not being followed, it makes it difficult to hold Congress accountable to this provision. Every American has the right to see where their money is going, and the language of the Constitution suggests that these disclosures should be detailed and frequent.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, “We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress, and every man of any mind in the Union, should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them.” The Founders understood the need for transparency, yet today, our government operates with more secrecy than ever before.
Why are Democratic representatives upset that anyone — let alone the president — is asking for a thorough accounting of federal expenditures?
The outrage over DOGE isn’t about legality; it’s about what’s being uncovered. The more we dig into federal spending, the clearer it becomes that waste, mismanagement and outright fraud have been allowed to fester in the shadows for years.
The irony of this controversy is that this constitutional provision predates the federal income tax. At the time of the founding fathers, “public money” came from tariffs, taxes and duties. Many of the framers were businessmen themselves, and they understood the necessity of financial accountability. If they believed transparency was critical when the government was funded primarily through indirect taxation, imagine how much more essential they would consider it today, when nearly every working American has a chunk of their paycheck taken by the IRS before they even see it.
Every dollar spent by agencies like FEMA, USAID or the Department of Education first had to be taken from taxpayers like you and me. It is not just our right but our duty to demand accountability. The pushback against DOGE suggests that those in power would prefer the American people remain in the dark about how their money is being allocated.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, carefully budgeting their paychecks while their tax dollars are funneled into expenses they would never approve of if given the choice. Those who have long argued that “taxation is theft” are often met with the counterargument that taxes fund roads and bridges. If all DOGE was uncovering were invoices for pavement and steel, there would be little controversy.
Instead, what’s being revealed is absurdity — spending so reckless and unnecessary that Americans rightfully feel robbed blind.
Given the lack of historical debate over Article 1, Section 9, it seems evident that the framers largely agreed on this provision. They understood that a federal government free from financial oversight would become bloated and corrupt. The real debate over transparency has only emerged in modern times precisely because the numbers being exposed are, quite frankly, shocking.
Americans deserve to know where their money is going. Last year, my taxes were off by $109.23, and I received a letter from the IRS informing me of the discrepancy and demanding immediate payment to avoid additional action.
If the federal government wants to nickel and dime us, we should absolutely have the ability to nickel and dime them. That is precisely what DOGE is doing — holding the government accountable in the same way that it holds its citizens accountable.
Democrats crying foul over this initiative are not just on the wrong side of the issue; they are on the wrong side of the American people. The real constitutional crisis is not that Musk, under the president’s direction, is asking to review federal spending.
The crisis is that Democrats and liberal judges are actively trying to prevent something that is clearly constitutional. If anything, judges should be ordering Congress to comply with this provision immediately, not obstructing efforts to bring transparency to the American people.
Transparency in government spending should not be a partisan issue. If you are one of the few Americans who don’t like DOGE, I would suggest you examine why that is.
After all, it is your money too.
Aimee Mulligan is a political consultant and managing director of CardinalGPS, a full-service political services firm.
