Prior to 1913, the American people had direct veto power against spending policies of the federal government because in order for the federal government to borrow any money it had to go to the people.

Make America 1912 Again 🇺🇲

Listen closely to the reason democracy is a farce. pic.twitter.com/dtQIkwDqIr

— Red Pill USA (@Red_Pill_US) April 13, 2025

Prior to 1913, the American people had direct veto power against spending policies of the federal government because in order for the federal government to borrow any money it had to go to the people.  There was no Central Bank it could go to.  It had to sell bonds.  If you didn't want to go to war, you didn't buy the bonds.  If you didn't want this pork project that the government had in mind, you didn't buy the bonds.  It was a very simple system, a Republican system, whereby you had veto power, economic veto power.  And it worked very well until 1913.  That's how come government managed to stay small because it didn't have an unlimited credit line to go on a shopping spree for 80 years and make you pay for it.  So in 1913, there was this convenient new arrangement made.  The Federal Reserve Act created an unlimited credit line for the Federal United States government to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve Bank and obligated the American people to pay it back, completely bypassing what was our veto power, and they no longer had to come to us directly to ask permission to fund something.  They went directly to the bank.