The recently passed COVID relief and omnibus spending bill is so obscene that it might serve a useful purpose.  If President Trump will hold it up as an example of a government that no longer represents the American people, those same people might begin to understand both how important President Trump is and how corrupt our representational system has become.

We have known for decades that the Imperial City of D.C. is no longer involved in the representative government  required as our Republic's basic foundation. The majority of our "representatives" on both sides of the aisle are co-opted by K Street lobbyists whom anyone may purchase, from Wisconsin dairy farmers to Catholic Charities to Big Tech.

The Communist Party of China does not need K Street.  It has its own ways to influence.  A look at the recently passed bill in Congress that "gives" $600 to each qualified individual citizen or alien to offset the enormous drag on the economy, not just from COVID-19, but from the non-scientific reaction to the virus in the form of ad hoc lockdowns and resulting business closures, bankruptcies, and job and income losses. 

As the president has said, $600 is a pittance.  His opposition has resulted in Pelosi's offering to raise the ante to the $2,000 level that Trump has suggested.  But this offer is just much more spending without curtailing the unnecessary spending.  We need a bill that transfers more money to those who truly need it in lieu of those who don't need it.  

If you want to see that D.C. is totally corrupt and undeserving of any support from tens of millions of hardworking, good-hearted, tax-paying Americans, just look to this legislation's giveaways to a host of groups at home and abroad totally unconnected to the impact from the virus.  When you add in that no one could have read the almost 6,000-page bill before voting on it, that brings up a constitutional question: if our representatives have not read the bill, yet still voted, they have violated their constitutional oath.

Those voting admit that they have not read the bill.  This bill has not passed as the result of any reasonable legislative due diligence on the part of those voting either for or against.  This is taxation without true representation.  We've been through this before with King George III.  Therefore, the bill as passed cannot be legal.

The president is obligated to veto this bill.  If Congress overrides the veto, the president should declare it illegal and refuse to enforce it, with the Treasury holding the money.  That would mean an appeal to the SCOTUS.  And then, if the SCOTUS decides that the bill is legal, the president should still refuse to enforce the bill.

I realize that we are in the throes of deciding who shall serve as our next president and that President Trump is working overtime to secure a fair election result.  However, by making this bogus bill a central focus, the president could once again show how important it is for him to have a second term.

Christopher Garbacz is a former economics professor who has published extensively.

Image: In 2017, Trump promised to cut regulations and, to give a visual sense, stood next to a huge stack of paper. That stack seems appropriate in light of the almost 6,000-page spending bill.  YouTube screen grab.