Congress Lacks Fiduciary Duty Despite Managing Record Budget

The group running the biggest budget in history is Congress. They manage an entity that employs more people than any other in America yet they have no broad fiduciary duty at all. In most large businesses and certainly every public company, a board of directors stands ready to represent stakeholders. This concept is known as a fiduciary duty. It means a legal obligation to act in the best interests of those you represent. The stakes get real fast because a fiduciary can be sued for putting personal gain ahead of others or for negligence and poor judgment.

These relationships apply beyond just companies. They exist in financial advisory roles and for trustees as well. A fiduciary relationship is strictly legal so leaders must act honestly, show care, avoid conflicts of interest and remain trustworthy to the parties they serve. Somehow Congress has sidestepped this entirely. Yes, lawmakers take a moral oath but their ethics rules feel weak. Those making laws and passing budgets call it spending money but regular overspending hardly fits that definition. They hold no true legal fiduciary role whatsoever.

We have seen and paid the price for this failure already. The national debt now exceeds forty trillion dollars. Congress spends about seven trillion annually which is two trillion more than they take in. This behavior has driven massive inflation right over the heads of American families. We are currently paying interest on our debt at a higher rate than we spend on national defense yet defending the country remains a legitimate government function.

Congress writes laws that tilt the scales toward specific groups while hurting others. They have enriched themselves through stock trading despite the STOCK Act passed in 2012. Calls for term limits remain ignored even though most Americans support them. This sometimes leaves members with clearly diminished capacity to do their jobs properly. When asked if the national debt crisis is solvable the answer always comes in two parts. We possess the tools required but we lack the political structure needed to use them.

Senator Rand Paul stated that our budget deficit is out of control and Congress must pass his six penny plan. It feels truly wrong that private sector actors handling serious legal and financial matters have a fiduciary obligation yet our massive government bears no such duty including from those representing American people. When individuals bear no requirement to act in the best interests of their constituents they are given access to great power and other people's money so we end up with massive debt and a dysfunctional country. We should demand care, trust and duty from our representatives. And it needs to be a legal obligation not just a theoretical one.