Episode 600 Show Notes- Constitutional Crisis? What Exactly Are Democrats Defending?

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Episode Description

In this must-listen episode of The P.A.S. Report Podcast, Professor Nick Giordano exposes how the Democrat Party lost its way following their 2024 election defeat. From non-stop cries of a “constitutional crisis” to unapologetic support for a bloated administrative state and failed institutions, Professor Giordano dissects the core issues that pushed voters away. Discover how taxpayer funds are being funneled into NGOs that promote polarizing agendas, why selective outrage over Elon Musk’s efforts to cut waste underscores a deeper hypocrisy, and how the real constitutional crisis lies in America’s drift from the Founders’ vision. If you’re fed up with wasteful spending, double standards, and the erosion of federalism, this episode will show you exactly why it’s time to restore limited government and bring accountability back to Washington.

Episode Highlights:

• Unraveling the 2024 Election Loss: Learn how the Democrat Party’s defense of wasteful programs, misguided priorities, and unpopular policies led to their downfall.
• Hypocrisy & Selective Outrage: Explore how figures like Senate Minority Leader Schumer and Michael Steele target Elon Musk while ignoring long-standing government overreach, from IRS abuses to FISA violations.
• Restoring the Founders’ Vision: Understand how far we’ve strayed from true federalism and why curbing the ever-growing administrative state is essential for protecting American freedoms.

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Show Notes- Constitutional Crisis? What Exactly Are Democrats Defending?

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to the PAS Report Podcast
01:00 What Exactly are the Democrats Defending?
02:30 Immigration Laws
04:41 Education System Failures and Accountability
05:08 Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Resolutions
11:00 Wasteful Spending and Political Accountability
14:54 The Disconnect Between Politicians and Citizens
18:03 Government Waste and Inefficiency
21:49 The Role of NGOs and Political Agendas
25:11 Selective Outrage in Politics
29:57 The Real Constitutional Crisis
32:10 Restoring Balance and Accountability
38:52 Call to Action

 

Welcome to The P.A.S. Report Podcast

[Auto-Generated Transcript]

Hello everyone, and welcome to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. I’m your host, Professor Nick Giordano. Be sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and go to The P.A.S. Report website at pasreport.com to sign up for my newsletter, read the show notes, and share the episode with family and friends.

What Exactly Are the Democrats Defending?

In this episode, we’re going to tackle a fundamental question: What exactly are the Democrats defending? That’s the big question. Because if you’ve been paying attention over the last few years, you’ll notice a recurring theme: it’s getting harder to tell what they stand for, and any time Republicans – or President Trump – do something, the Democrats immediately start screaming rather than pick their battles. It’s like the boy who cried wolf. Their outrage machine goes into overdrive, and they start yelling that we’re in a constitutional crisis.

Now, let’s talk about this constitutional crisis rhetoric for a moment. They shout that we’re in a constitutional crisis, but when you really break it down, what are they trying to protect?

Ask yourself: Is it really a constitutional crisis to enforce our immigration laws and protect our borders? After all, Congress has the authority to set those laws. So, if the law says people can’t enter the country illegally, how is it a crisis for our federal agencies to actually enforce that law? Enforcing those laws is literally the executive branch’s job. Yet, Democrats would rather see an unending flow of people entering the country illegally than enforce the law and protect our sovereignty. It’s a bizarre situation. They spend more considerably more energy telling people how to evade deportations as opposed to the problems millions of Americans face in their everyday lives. The true crisis here isn’t the enforcement of immigration laws, but the intentional neglect of a fundamental responsibility by those in power who should be safeguarding the nation’s borders, its laws, and our sovereignty.

And it’s not just about illegal immigration. Last week I did an episode on the Department of Education. The Democrats say it’s a constitutional crisis if anyone dares to reduce its size or re-focus its mission. Now sure, only Congress can fully dismantle a cabinet-level department, but let’s not pretend that the Department of Education has been successful. How is it a constitutional crisis if we pare down the Department’s operations and shift certain responsibilities back to the states? How is it a constitutional crisis to make it more efficient or actually demand we have standards? How is it a constitutional crisis to make the system more efficient and put students and parents before the bureaucrats, the teachers’ unions, and the consulting class? To me, it isn’t about Republican or Democrats. It’s about common sense. The system is broken. That’s indisputable. Yet, Democrats would rather rage out over the dismantling of the Department of Education as opposed to the abysmal student proficiency level.

The same goes for foreign policy. According to the Democrats, it’s somehow a constitutional crisis if the administration demands that Russia and Ukraine come to the negotiating table to avoid further conflict. President Trump is doing Putin’s bidding. He’s an agent of Russia. But isn’t a diplomatic resolution something we want?

When it comes to tariffs, is it a constitutional crisis to demand that other countries stop piling tariffs on American products, and if they don’t, they can expect reciprocal tariffs? The Democrats call this a crisis, but let’s be honest: every President has a right to defend American economic interests and it is about time a President actually did instead of simply paying lip service to the problem. When did it become unconstitutional to put America first in trade negotiations?

So you see, the Democrat Party has been losing ground because their entire platform seems to revolve around labeling everything as some sort of existential threat to our Republic. They scream constitutional crisis. Yet they provide no real solutions, no counter-arguments, and definitely no coherent vision to solve the everyday problems that we as a nation face.

Then they wonder why they lost the 2024 election. They spend so much time fighting against everything and never bother to explain what they themselves stand for, aside from wanting to preserve the status quo of wasteful spending and out-of-control government bureaucracies.

Just look at the whole wasteful spending argument. Sure, Congress holds the power of the purse. That means if Congress allocates funds for specific purposes, the President can’t simply ignore those allocations or spend the money elsewhere. However, within the framework of our government, the President does have wide latitude over how discretionary spending is used. That’s part of the executive branch’s authority. This is not a crisis. It’s exactly how our system of checks and balances works.

Yet, if you turn on mainstream media or listen to certain politicians, you’d think it’s an abuse of power for the administration to decide how best to use discretionary funds to fulfill campaign promises, for instance, making sure taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted on gender reassignment surgeries in Guatemala or funneled into far-left projects. The real crisis here is that the Democrats refuse to accept that the electorate doesn’t want endless spending as our nation is saddled with unsustainable debt.

They also forget the role of career politicians. Those who’ve been in office for decades and have failed to address these problems. They are the exact reason that Trump won in 2016 and again in 2024. Politicians who know about waste, who see it year after year, and do nothing. Then, when someone like President Trump tries to do something about it, the Democrats are in an uproar. They accuse the other side of overreach while refusing to acknowledge they – and Republicans too in all honesty – have enabled this broken system for decades.

So, in this episode, we’re going to explore this so-called “constitutional crisis” in depth. We’re going to examine how the Democrats’ continued defense of unpopular positions – like defending the Department of Education despite its catastrophic failures or calling to end deportations for criminal illegal immigrants – contributed to their losses in 2024. We’ll discuss how these politicians, despite screaming about constitutional overreach, have done absolutely nothing to stop the actual abuse of power or the reckless spending that so many Americans are sick and tired of.

By the end of this show, you’ll have a clearer picture of why the Democrats have lost credibility. Why voters are turning their backs on a party that only seems to react instead of govern, and why the issues they champion are out of step with the majority of Americans? Most importantly, I will talk about the real constitutional crisis. You won’t want to miss a minute. So hang tight, and we will be right back.

Break

The Democrats’ Defense of the Unpopular and Wasteful

Welcome back to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. I want to dive deeper into the Democrat Party’s defense of unpopular and wasteful programs – programs that eat up massive amounts of taxpayer dollars while delivering little to no tangible benefit for everyday Americans. If you’re wondering why the Democrats lost so decisively in the 2024 elections, this is a big part of it.

Before we get into specific examples, let’s hear from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who recently held a press conference. He actually acknowledged the waste in government but then turned around and criticized the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, and Elon Musk, for daring to shine a light on it. Let’s listen to what he had to say.

Sound Clip Senator Schumer

It’s remarkable to hear Senator Schumer admit there’s waste in government spending, yet in the same breath, slam the very effort that aims to root out that waste. The reality is that career politicians, on both sides of the aisle, have overseen decades of wasteful spending. They complain about it, but they never actually do anything to address it despite Congress having the power of the purse. And in a way, some Republicans are even worse because they will campaign on cutting wasteful spending and then don’t do a damn thing when they get into office.

Do you want to talk about waste? You want to talk about where your tax dollars are really going. It’s not just about funding traditional departments like Education, Transportation, or Defense. A growing chunk of federal funding flows to nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, that promote incredibly divisive left-wing agendas. For instance, millions of dollars have gone to organizations pushing explicit political narratives about race, gender, and climate change. These groups push policies that the majority of Americans don’t support, yet they’re funded in part by the taxes we pay.

Consider this: a 2022 Government Accountability Office report showed grants worth over $15 million allocated to a handful of NGOs that produce “curriculum materials” centered on anti-capitalist rhetoric. So, you and I are paying to promote socialism at the expense of capitalism. Another example involves foreign aid programs that fund “gender studies” in countries that clearly have more pressing needs like infrastructure and healthcare. Much of our spending is nothing more than a vehicle to push far-left policies, both here and abroad.

As I said last week, we have the Department of Education, which has ballooned since its creation. Despite billions upon billions in federal funding, test scores remain abysmal, and many students graduate without basic reading or math proficiency. Rather than fix this problem, the Department of Education has spent over $200 million of your money on counseling programs for antiracism, microaggressions, and whiteness. They spent over a billion dollars on DEI initiatives from kindergarten through college.

Well, parents are fed up, especially when their child struggles to read and write, yet they see that some of these funds go toward political training sessions or ideological workshops rather than actual classroom improvements. The Democrats defend this status quo, and label any attempt to cut waste, streamline operations, or return control to the states as a “constitutional crisis.”

The National Science Foundation has spent millions of dollars that went to universities to develop tools to silence and censor Americans in the name of misinformation and disinformation. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want my hard-earned money going to programs that are designed to take away my right to free speech. That’s a constitutional crisis right there.

So let’s go back to Senator Schumer’s comments. It’s almost as though he and his colleagues find the idea of holding the government accountable to be offensive. But accountability is exactly what America needs and the American people should demand. We want our tax dollars spent on projects that strengthen our economy, improve our education system, and protect our borders. It really is that simple, and guess what? Many of the solutions don’t require spending more money. Enforcing the laws already on the books doesn’t require creating new programs. Raising standards doesn’t require tax dollars. Strengthening our economy doesn’t mean we need to spend more money. Cutting regulations spurs economic growth and comes at a cost savings to the taxpayers..

Instead, we have a system where large sums of our tax dollars end up in the hands of special interest groups that do nothing to address real problems like skyrocketing crime rates, homelessness, or failing infrastructure like tackling racist roads.

Worse still, these wasteful programs are frequently shielded from scrutiny by labeling them “necessary” or “urgent.” Remember the infamous “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars with no real benefit? Or the billions spent on vanity projects in Afghanistan that ended up abandoned?

Now that the full scope of the waste is being revealed, people like Senator Schumer are upset. Amazing isn’t it?

The bottom line is this: Democrats, and some Republicans, have defended a system that siphons off tax dollars to support and sustain a bureaucracy that has grown totally out of control. They’re more upset about someone finally trying to rein in the out-of-control spending than they are about the fact that this spending isn’t solving the real problems people face.

In fact, they express more outrage over cutting wasteful spending and holding bureaucrats accountable than they do about the gross abuses of power at the hands of our bureaucracy. I will get to that after a quick break. So, hang tight and we will be right back.

Break

The Hypocrisy of Outrage

Welcome back to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. So now, let’s talk about the selective outrage we’re seeing from politicians and media figures – an outrage that’s aimed squarely at Elon Musk, DOGE and President Trump, rather than at the well-documented abuses of power within our own government.

I want to play a short sound clip from Michael Steele, the former RNC chair, who is now expressing outrage that Musk supposedly has vast amounts of data on Americans. Let’s take a listen.

Sound Clip Michael Steele

So, here’s the question: Where was this outrage when the IRS was targeting conservative groups solely because of their political beliefs? Where was the outrage when the CIA was caught spying on members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the same Senators who, by law, are the ones with the power of oversight in our intelligence services? And how about the fact that the FBI abused the FISA process more than 250,000 times, illegally obtaining data on American citizens without proper justification?

This selective concern over data and privacy is nothing more than a political tool. Steele, the media, the Democrats, and some Republicans appear far less bothered by the repeated abuses of power at the hands of the bureaucracy. It appears they don’t care when it’s the government overreaching its authority. But the moment someone like Elon Musk decides to shine a light on government bloat or inefficiency, they suddenly see a threat. Interesting, isn’t it.

So, the Democrats keep making: “Elon Musk wasn’t elected” as one of their primary arguments. To that, I say, so what? The majority of the federal bureaucracy wasn’t elected, either. Most of the power wielded in Washington, D.C., comes from career bureaucrats, appointed officials, and agencies that operate with very little oversight. Why do so many pretend that this is okay. When the Democrats say Musk shouldn’t have influence because he’s not elected, they ignore that entire branches of government, like the Department of Education or the Federal Reserve, aren’t headed by elected officials, either. They operate under mandates given by Congress, and many of our departments and agencies have gone far beyond their statutory authority.

And to all you Democrats out there, open your eyes. As Elon Musk is listing specific programs that waste taxpayer dollars, you’re arguing that Musk is the bigger problem. Who do you think makes a better case, Elon Musk when he lays out how taxpayer dollars went to giving bees cocaine or studying the sexual habits of Chinese prostitutes or Democrats that argue Musk and DOGE should go away?  Who do you think the American people take more seriously?

The real issue here is accountability. If the President appoints someone to cut government waste, shouldn’t we at least see what they find before dismissing their efforts? If DOGE is uncovering billions of dollars funneled into nebulous NGOs or wasted on redundant programs, you’d think everyone – Democrat or Republican – would be celebrating that news and working together to fix it. But instead, we see outrage, as if exposing government inefficiency is a national security threat. Here’s some advice to my Democrat friends, you would be better off pointing to specific successful programs and defending them while acknowledging the waste and introducing bills to eliminate these specific programs. Then I and others may take you more seriously. But when you are essentially defending wasteful spending, and that’s exactly what you’re doing, sorry, but you lose credibility.

But remember, many of these politicians have been part of the D.C. machine for decades. They’ve built relationships with lobbyists, NGOs, and bureaucrats who thrive under the status quo. They are the Swamp.

So, when someone like Musk steps in, ready to peel back the layers and show the public where our tax dollars are going, it risks upsetting a very cozy arrangement. This is where the hypocrisy reveals itself most starkly. They call it a “constitutional crisis” when the administration exercises legal discretionary spending decisions or when DOGE tries to eliminate wasteful programs. But when the government itself violates the constitutional rights of citizens through illegal data collection, questionable IRS targeting, or foreign intelligence abuses these same politicians are noticeably silent.

We, as Americans, should be asking ourselves: Which is the bigger threat? A private individual trying to increase transparency, or a government that has repeatedly violated our trust under the cloak of secrecy? If the concern truly lies with protecting American citizens and upholding the Constitution, then the real outrage should be directed at agencies and officials who misuse their power.

Democrats lost the 2024 election largely because they refused to address fundamental issues that matter to everyday Americans, issues like reckless spending, the erosion of civil liberties, and government overreach. Yet, it appears they haven’t learned a thing. So when we get back from this quick break, I want to talk about the real constitutional crisis.

Break

The Real Constitutional Crisis

Welcome back to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. Over the course of this episode, we’ve discussed how the Democrat Party appears lost, lacking a coherent plan to counter Republicans or President Trump. We’ve talked about their knee-jerk reaction to label everything a “constitutional crisis,” when in reality they’re simply defending the same bloated, inefficient bureaucracy that has failed Americans for decades. We’ve also explored the blatant hypocrisy of politicians who remain silent on government overreach but cry foul the moment a private individual like Elon Musk attempts to increase transparency.

In this final segment, I want to focus on what the real constitutional crisis actually is. It’s not enforcing existing immigration laws, proposing reforms in the Department of Education, or asking foreign powers to negotiate peace. It’s the fact that we have strayed so far from the Founders’ original vision for this country. The United States was never intended to be governed by an all-powerful, centralized authority. Instead, the Constitution set forth a framework rooted in federalism—the principle that power should be divided among federal, state, and local governments, each with its own responsibilities and limited scope.

Over the past century, we’ve seen the federal government expand well beyond its constitutional bounds. Massive agencies make rules and regulations that carry the weight of law, even though they’re run by unelected bureaucrats. Congress, the body with the sole power to legislate, routinely delegates that authority to administrative agencies, which then churn out thousands of pages of regulations that affect every aspect of our lives—from how businesses operate to what our children learn in school. This is not what the Framers envisioned. They specifically warned against concentrating too much power in the hands of a few because they understood that once government overreach begins, it’s incredibly difficult to roll back.

Look at the Department of Education as a prime example. What started as a small office to coordinate data on schools has ballooned into a federal behemoth with an enormous budget. Despite pouring billions upon billions of dollars into it, our educational outcomes remain abysmal. The authority to shape education policy, which the Founders believed should reside primarily with local communities and state governments, has shifted to Washington, D.C. We see similar patterns in healthcare, environmental regulation, and even law enforcement, with federal agencies increasingly calling the shots that used to be handled at the local or state level.

This drift away from federalism has led to the administrative state—a sprawling network of agencies, regulations, and career officials who essentially operate as a fourth branch of government. They’re not directly answerable to voters; they don’t stand for election. And when something goes wrong, good luck pinpointing who is truly responsible. This lack of accountability is the real constitutional crisis. Americans today feel alienated from a government that seems more interested in preserving its power than in safeguarding our freedoms.

Ask yourself: Why do politicians get so bent out of shape when someone proposes to shrink government? Because an entire ecosystem of special interests, lobbyists, and bureaucrats relies on the status quo. They benefit from a complex system that discourages transparency. The more power the government amasses, the more money flows into campaigns, NGOs, and special projects that may have little to do with public good but everything to do with political gain.

The Founders would hardly recognize this version of the republic they established. In their view, local and state governments were to handle the vast majority of issues, fostering a sense of community and responsiveness. The federal government was meant to protect our liberties, keep us safe, and handle matters that states couldn’t, like national defense or international treaties. Today, we see federal agencies dictating everything from educational curricula to environmental standards, often without meaningful input from those who live and work under these rules every day.

So, let’s be clear: The genuine constitutional crisis isn’t enforcing existing laws. Nor is it cutting wasteful spending. It’s this unrelenting growth of the federal apparatus and the abandonment of federalism. If we truly care about preserving liberty, accountability, and the spirit of our Constitution, we need to return to a more balanced system. A system that respects state sovereignty, values local input and recognizes that not all solutions should come from the top down.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The P.A.S. Report Podcast. In the end, if we’re serious about reversing our drift from the Founders’ design, we need leaders willing to stand up to the entrenched interests in Washington and restore the balance of power.

To listen to the full episode, click play above or visit your favorite podcast platform!

Click here to read Professor Giordano’s latest piece at Campus Reform

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