Editor’s note: In Part 3, Dallas Brown followed Washington’s $40 trillion debt to the gas pump. In this final installment, he shows how one family already won this fight once, and how you can help win it again.
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| By Dallas Brown |
The Weiss family has been fighting for honest money for almost 100 years.
In 1959, Martin Weiss’s father, Irving Weiss, started the Sound Dollar Committee to help President Eisenhower balance the budget and stop inflation.
Irving didn’t have a TV network. He didn’t have a political party. But he had conviction. And people answered.
Among them: Former President Harry Truman. Famous financier Bernard Baruch. The head of the nation’s leading accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Even the chairman of the Federal Reserve gave his blessing.
They scraped together sufficient donations to buy one full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal. The headline quoted the Fed chairman: “Fight to the last ditch to preserve our dollar.” Irving signed it.
Then the Chicago Tribune asked if it could run its own campaign, at its own expense.
A single ad became a national movement. And it worked.
Before Irving Weiss started the Sound Dollar Committee, Washington ran a deficit of almost $12.5 billion. Afterward, in fiscal 1960, the government finished with a surplus of $1.1 billion.
It happened with a Republican president and a Congress run by big Democratic majorities. Irving’s committee was credited with helping make it happen.
As Martin says, that was the last truly honest balanced budget this country has had. Every “balanced budget” since, he argues, depended on moving debt off the books.
In 2004, Martin brought his father’s committee back to push for honest government accounting, a balanced budget and sound economic policy.
Sixty-seven years later, Irving’s fight is more urgent than ever.
So Yes, Cheer for Argentina
Argentina isn’t fixed. Prices there still rose 33.4% over the past year.
But before we feel too superior, look at us.
Washington will tell you inflation is “only” 3.7%. Tell that to the family filling up the car.
In the past year, our gasoline is up 34.2%. Fuel oil, which many families heat their homes with, is up 74.2%. Plane tickets are up 22.4%.
And since January 2020, prices here are up about 31% overall.
Argentina has a long way to go. So do we.
Now look where Argentina started. In December 2023, prices rose 25.5% in a single month. Imagine your rent, your groceries, and your gas going up by a quarter in 30 days.
This August? 1.7% — the lowest in 14 months. September came in at 1.9%. Still a world away from where they started.
That didn’t happen by wishing. The government pursued sharp fiscal cuts and changes to monetary policy to bring inflation under control.
They chose pain now over ruin later.
Now they’re trying to lock it in so the next politician can’t undo it.
As Senator Patricia Bullrich put it, this reform doesn’t belong to one government. It belongs to any government that wants Argentina to stop being a second-rate country.
That takes real courage.
Debt Is Slavery. For Countries, Too.
When you’re in debt, you stop making choices for yourself. You make them for the person you owe.
That’s true for a family. It’s just as true for a country.
Washington now answers to its lenders, to foreign governments that hold our debt, and to a $1 trillion interest bill.
Policy gets built around the debt instead of around the people. And when the bill comes due, Washington doesn’t pay it.
You do. Through inflation. Through taxes. Through savings that slowly melt away while you watch.
They borrow in your name. Then they punish you for it.
What Balance Would Mean for You
Imagine if our politicians had to do what Argentina is trying to do.
If they had to balance the budget, they’d have to cut the waste instead of hiding it.
If they couldn’t print money, the second tax would shrink. Your savings would hold their value instead of bleeding a little every month.
If they borrowed less, there’d be less pressure pushing interest rates up.
The Fed’s September rate hike is driving up the costs on mortgages, credit cards and car loans.
That’s your house, your kitchen table, your driveway.
And with two Fed officials already pushing for another hike, December could bring more.
A government that isn’t drowning in debt could finally make decisions for its citizens instead of its lenders.
That’s what’s at stake. Sound money is the ground every family’s future is built on.
Protect What’s Yours
You can’t force Congress to balance the budget. Not by yourself.
But you can make sure your own money is standing on solid ground when the storm hits.
That’s exactly what Weiss Ratings Plus was built for.
Avoid companies that are slaves to debt. Our Solvency Index measures how strong a company’s balance sheet is and whether it can pay what it owes, now and later.
When rates rise, as they did in September, the companies buried in debt get squeezed first. You can spot them before they hurt you.
Know the moment something changes. Get an alert the instant a stock is upgraded or downgraded. Don’t find out from the evening news.
See the danger, not just the upside. Our Risk Rating shows how much a stock swings and how financially stable the company is. Our Reward Rating looks at returns, earnings and dividends. You see both sides before you risk a dollar.
Don’t let inflation eat your cash. Money grows or it dies. Ratings Plus covers more than 50,000 stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. Find solid investments that can grow faster than prices, without gambling.
Check your bank and your insurer. Weiss runs 10 separate rating models covering stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, banks, insurance companies and more. When things get rough, you’ll want to know that the places holding your savings and your annuity are safe.
None of this will make you rich overnight. That was never the point.
The point is that, when the storm comes and the second tax comes for your savings, you’re still standing. Still in control. Still making your own choices.
Declare Our Independence. Again.
Irving didn’t wait for Washington to fix itself. He was one man with one newspaper ad and a heart full of conviction. And ordinary Americans, even a former president, rose up and stood beside him.
Our founders didn’t wait, either. They signed their names and declared in the face of the most powerful empire on earth: no more.
Now it’s your turn.
I call on you, as an American, as a citizen, as someone who works hard for every dollar you have, to help ignite a new movement for a new generation.
We’re calling it The Dollar Independence Committee.
Our mission is simple: Own our money. Owe no one our freedom.
Washington knew no government would stay disciplined on its own. In his Farewell Address, he said carrying out these principles “belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate.”
Public opinion. That’s you. That’s me.
Jefferson trusted ordinary people, not the powerful, to guard our freedom. In his words:
“I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And, to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”
And he spelled out the choice in front of us: “We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.”
Thrift and freedom. Or waste and servitude. There is no third door.
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THE DECLARATION OF DOLLAR INDEPENDENCE We hold these truths to be self-evident: That the money we earn belongs to us, not to Washington’s creditors. That no government should spend what it will not honestly raise. That printing money to cover waste is a tax we never voted for, and we do not consent to it. That our children should inherit our savings, not our debts. That we will own our money, owe no one our freedom, and take back control of our own destiny. |
Here’s how you can stand with us.
Sign the Declaration. Add your name here. Irving started with one ad. We’re starting with you.
Tell your representatives. Call or write your two senators and your representative. Tell them you want a balanced budget and an end to paying for waste with printed money.
Ask every candidate where they stand. The midterm elections are Tuesday, Nov. 3. Ask every candidate one simple question: Will you vote to balance the budget? Then vote like your savings depend on it. Because they do.
Pass this letter along. Send it to anyone who needs to know about this. The founders spread the word with pamphlets. Irving did it with a single newspaper ad. You can do it with a single click.
The founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.
We’re only asking for your name.
Argentina finally said no. It’s time for Americans to say it, too.
They print the money. You pay the bill.
Not anymore.
Dallas Brown
P.S. Signing the Declaration is how we fight back together. But you should also make sure your own money is on solid ground.
That’s what Weiss Ratings Plus was built for. It grades more than 50,000 stocks, ETFs and mutual funds, plus the banks and insurers holding your savings.
That way, you can avoid companies buried in debt and find the ones built to outgrow inflation. Click here to learn more about Weiss Ratings Plus.
