This episode goes over how much the federal government spends per person in broad categories. I also suggest allowing people to have a binding vote on a federal budget by broad categories that changes the budget by up to 5%. If Congress wants to spend MORE than what people approve, they need 2/3. If they want to spend less, a normal vote will do.

The guardrails would require that a person has some idea of the amount spent in categories--open book test--and that you can't vote to skip interest on the debt or wipe out mandatory spending programs.

Now that we have a budget again, X is split between the Epstein Files and Immigration. At least on my feed, your algorithm may vary. Around 15% of Americans are immigrants. How many are legal, how did they get here, and why will Indian H-1B visa applicants have an 80 year wait to become lawful permanent residents?

Around 21 MILLION people applied for 55,000 visas in 37 days. This was for people in countries with few granted visas in the past five years. If you think America sucks, there are a lot of people who disagree. American immigration policy tries to combine economic vitality and humanity. Whether we should focus on bringing in mostly white people or have fewer immigrants are value choices along with economic ones.

Some of the references:

Manhattan Institute-Pro immigration for economically beneficial immigrants. The paper shares the financial results on changing our immigration policy.

https://manhattan.institute/article/the-fiscal-impact-of-immigration-2025-update

Indian asylum claims shoot to 51,000

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r56vr40jvo

Pew Research Center-March 4, 2025 article

https://pewrsr.ch/4h8Dxvj

Congressional Research Service article from October 15, 2024. Nonimmigrant and Immigrant Visa Categories

https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R45938/R45938.9.pdf

Keeping H-1B status while awaiting a Green Card (Lawful Permanent Status)

https://arvian-immigration.com/maintaining-h-1b-status-during-eb-green-card-process/

The November 2025 State Department Visa Bulletin-21 million people applied to get 55,000 diversity immigrant slots in 37 days.

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Bulletins/visabulletin_November2025.pdf

Click baiting title but his election showed how local areas have issues that aren't best addressed by 'one size fits all' policies. Fewer Americans feel proud to be an American and mid-decade gerrymandering by both parties feels like preparing for a civil war rather than a cold war. Fewer Americans also are willing to fight for their country as well but we can't count on that in a civil war.

How can we make America function better?

1. Give the minority party in the House the right to have a floor debate and vote on one of every four bills. If 3 bills get House votes with support by a majority of the majority party, the minority party gets 1 with the same amount of floor debate time as the majority party's bill that has the most debate time.
2. Make the Senate go back to a 'talking filibuster'! Instead of sticking the pain of a shutdown on constituents alone, they need to debate it in session.
3. Allow states more play on immigrant worker controls with federal vetting. This would require states with 'sanctuary policies' to put up or shut up while allowing states to fill areas with labor needs and the states could set higher standards.

Sources:

Cultural Conservatism Map

https://www.culturalcurrents.institute/insights/most-conservative-states

Pride in America Survey

https://news.gallup.com/poll/692150/american-pride-slips-new-low.aspx

Willingness to fight for your country

https://www.gallup-international.com/fileadmin/user_upload/surveys_and_news/2024/Fewer_people_are_willing_to_fight_for_their_country_compared_to_ten_years_ago/Fighting_for_the_country.pdf

Canada's Immigration Policy and Provices:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/provincial-nominees.html

A recent NYT/Siena Poll says that around 2/3 of Americans think our country is too divided for government to work. An NPR-PBS-Marist poll from September shows that 25-31% of Americans think that violence 'may be necessary to get the country back on track'.

My thought is that Congress has not only given up on passing bills to address the concerns of Americans unless their financiers support it, but that major issues never even get brought to the floors in Congress.

My thought is to allow citizens to petition to have bills considered. If 5% of the people who voted for President in the most recent election in 34 states sign a petition for a bill, Congress has to debate it and vote on it. The Senate and House would each be required to apportion 30 hours for debate unless a chamber voted to increase the allotted time. 30 hours was chosen because that is the length of time allowed after the Senate votes to end a filibuster.

President Trump's call to import Argentina beef to lower meat prices caused an outcry and complaints about federal regulation. My take after reading about processing plants is that the federal government ISN'T the problem. The shortage of processing options for small scale farms could be addressed at the state level.

I have also been skeptical that enhanced federalism would deal with our political gridlock and anger. However, federalism COULD turn down the heat on immigration. Allow federal screening but let states and their own labor markets control the right to work while awaiting a green card.

Shout out to the book Breaking Away by Ryan McMaken of the Mises Institute for its information on how states used to have a central role in immigration policy when the federal government wasn't worried about it. Great read and I say that without any sponsorship or other means for moolah to get to my pocket from it.

The House has been set to the same number (435) since 1929 when we only had 120 million people. The average House seat now has 770,000 people. The UK, Canada, and Germany have 70-100k per member of their parliaments for comparison. Seats this large make gerrymandering easier because it is easier to bury more of the opposing political party.

It also makes most seats uncompetitive. Only 37 seats were decided by under 5 points in 2024. I look at increasing the number of seats to 1 per 250k (1390 members-too much) and end up with the 'cube root'. This is similar to what a lot of other democracies have. We end up with 700 House reps with an average of 490k constituents.

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/cuberoots.php

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-house-got-stuck-at-435-seats/

https://apportionmentcalculator.com/

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-gerrymandering-and-fair-maps-affected-battle-house

https://www.federalbudgetchallenge.org/app#/c/29/q/562

https://www.crfb.org/debtfixer

We are bitterly divided at the polls and on some social issues (level of religious beliefs, immigration), but not as far apart on others like voter ID, not cutting Social Security, and a majority in all parties support restricting participation in sports to biological sex. What we DON'T know is how it would affect spending. I am going to do the CFRFB 'Debt Fixer' and post in on my X page of 'Break Up America?'. I hope you'll do the same and share your results!

https://www.crfb.org/debtfixer

This episode was recorded during a government shutdown. Instead of talking about the 'big shutdown' of a national divorce, I look at a symptom of a government that has been broken down for a while-the use of reconciliation to make big policy changes. It also talks about a barrier to a renewed federalism called the 'right to travel' (not the sov cit crap version). Finally, we would have to decide which rights would be fundamental to all and which ones could be decided at the state level. Lots of 'you knows' in this episode so please don't try it as a drinking game. Only health advice I have for you.