The bill always comes due.
This is a tried and tested principle of conservatism. It is a truism that covers everything; the law, morality, economics, religion, and that great big ambiguity that is the hand of fate. It used to be a maxim that we deployed against liberals, communists, socialists, old school peaceniks and all other activist coalitions who now gather their banners under the umbrella of the progressive movement. The maxim still applies to all of them, from Zohran Mamdani to Pete Buttigieg to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They all frolic happily in the ignorance of their rhetoric as the cameras record every bromide and performative slogan, but sooner or later, the bill always comes due. Sadly, it is now a tenet that also applies to the new right.
Iran is the perfect illustration of this very basic precept. When you live in a country under an oppressive government that is accountable to no one (the people, the press or the parliament), said government has no incentive to honestly address the glaring problems that accumulate under its dictatorial control. How else can we explain that the Iranian rial lost 50 percent of its purchasing power? How else can we explain the mounting crises of natural gas, electricity and water shortages? How else can we explain that one out of every 15 Iranian citizens has left the country, legally or otherwise?
Some will blame the attacks on Iran from Israel and the US last June, but the looming economic collapse was in the works long before those military strikes. This is why Iran is now facing record high inflation, resulting in the contraction of key industries and unaffordable grocery prices on food staples such as bread, dairy products and produce. Those poor bastards can’t even buy a cheap smoke to destress from no groceries, no air conditioning, no heat and no internet. It is far more likely that the June bombings only exacerbated what was already a mounting calamity.
The bill appears to be coming due for the Ayatollah Khamenei and his fellow Islamic revolutionaries. The mullahs can finance all the terror that they wish against the western hemisphere, but if they can’t afford to feed or employ their own populous, Iran’s model of theocratic oppression cannot be sustainable on a long-term basis. The regime can torture its prisoners, rape its women, beat and murder its protesters and sing its own praises on state-run media, but what weapon can they implement against the immoveable force that is stagflation?
The bill always comes due.
President Trump has waged a one-man war against Venezuela. I have absolutely no sympathy for Nicolas Maduro. He is an illegitimate dictator who thinks he is answerable to no one. As of this writing, he’s in American jail awaiting trial. But who will hold President Trump accountable for his actions in the Caribbean? Can an American president wage an impulsive war against a country with no oversight? Apparently, the Republican-controlled Congress thinks so. But what will the voters think come November of 2026? You can be sure of one thing. If the Democrats win control of both (or even one) of the congressional chambers, they will hungrily rediscover the proper role of Congress in our system of checks and balances.
Even if the Democrats don’t do well next November, who knows what the reaction will be to this strike on the world stage. Reverberations will be felt from Russia to China to Saudi Arabia to Cuba. Then, there’s Venezuela itself. George W. Bush found out that it is relatively easy to invade a country, but it is far more difficult to maintain control once its leader is deposed.
Sidebar: If we have to put boots on the ground in Venezuela, the Democrats will own Congress in November.
The bill always comes due.
It is ironic to note that, even as President Trump waged war against Maduro, he is driven by the same despotic tendencies. Indeed, he has had quite a time ignoring the bill. After all, that’s been his modus operandi since he came to prominence in the 1970’s. And why not? It’s not his own money that he’s playing with, is it? He can weaponized tariffs to his heart’s content, deface the White House, rename institutions after himself, hand out presidential pardons like party favors, hire and fire whoever he wants in his administration, order his Justice Department to follow his legally dubious orders, loose time and again in court when he is sued, and he’ll never have to pay the bill. That burden falls to the American taxpayers, whether it comes at the behest of the IRS or at the grocery store.
The bill always comes due.
We are approaching the fifth anniversary of January 6. That should have been the bill that the GOP was forced to pay with equal measures of chagrin and contrition. Four years of pacifying an overgrown man child resulted in election denials, baseless conspiracy theories, intimidation of state election officials, millions of dollars squandered in court and, worst of all, an attack on our nation’s capital by insurrectionists. Instead, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Ronna McDaniel and other Republican bigshots did what every idiot in debt does. They simply ignored the bill. They deferred on their payments and they now think that they’re off the hook because fortunes appear to be running in their favor.
The bill always comes due.
I can imagine Democrats reading this and thumping their unmanly chests in righteous indignation. “YEAH, YEAH!” they’ll shriek. “IMPEACH THE SO’N BITCH!” I have no doubt that, if the Democrats regain power, they will do just that, and President Trump will give them ample reason to pursue him with ferocity. They have a head full of steam right now, so it’s very easy for them to forget that they are a big part of the reason we now have President Trump 47.
The bill always comes due.
President Biden found out the hard way. He chose to conceal the nature of his decline from the world. His wife, his family and his administration all did their part to cover up the severity of Biden’s deterioration from a public that had the right to know before they voted in 2024. The other arm of accountability, that of the fourth estate, also was largely complicit in the cover-up. But no one could hide the truth from the public when Biden, in an ill-advised fit of hubris, chose to put his cognitive decline on full display when he tried to debate Trump. It wasn’t long before Biden paid the bill when he was forced to drop out.
Others in Biden’s orbit are also paying the bill. Biden’s flagrant abuse of the presidential pardon power on behalf of his family won’t protect them from civil action. Apparently, Hunter Biden has massive debt that he cannot afford to settle. A rich boy drug habit is awfully expensive to finance. Dr. Jill Biden has been vilified by a press that once loved her. Kamala Harris tried to seize upon Biden’s downfall and turn it into a political victory for herself, but she never even got off the ground because she was a fatally flawed candidate. Harris is making noises about another run in 2028. She will fail. Again. I fear that Kamala will always be racking up a bill and will always be unable to bring her account current.
Meanwhile, other 2028 hopefuls are also facing consequences of their own making. Gavin Newsom has done an abysmal job in the wake of the Palisades Fire a year ago. Newsom can fling all the poop he wants at Trump, but no one will let him forget that decades of liberal policies under one-party rule in California lead to conditions that allowed the fire to wrought millions of dollars in damages, displace hundreds of people from their homes and cause untold devastation of the environment. Worse than that, the recovery from the fire has been mired in bureaucratic government red tape and is moving at a snail’s pace. California wealth just ain’t what it used to be.
Tim Walz would love to be our next president, but the little matter of massive fraud in Minnesota involving Somali immigrants will savage him like a rabid pit bull. Worse for him, it plays right into Trump’s narrative that many immigrants are here to rip off the taxpayers, rather than to contribute to our economy. The favored tactic of progressives to charge racism whenever fraud is mentioned is no longer effective, since it is the weaponization of such charges that allowed the fraud to flourish in the first place.
As for Gretchen Whitmer, her bill hasn’t come due yet. It will likely come due when/if she runs for president. No one knows the name, Fay Beydoun, right now, but if Whitmer makes it far enough, you’ll know it.
The bill always comes due.
Ask Kevin Roberts at the Heritage Foundation, the signature conservative D.C. think tank that has been hemorrhaging personnel since Roberts took up for Tucker Carlson. This is the same Tucker who has platformed Nazi apologists, historical revisionists and overt racists since his firing from Fox News in 2023. Roberts is trying to put on a brave face, claiming that Heritage is better off without the, “old guard.” That is sheer bullshit. A think tank runs on nothing but political theory and ideology. That is the entire purpose of a think tank. Roberts is either
Incandescently stupid, or woefully delusional. Either way, he will come to know the hard realities of a conservative philosophy that he has pretended to espouse over the past four years.
Tucker Carlson is the face of another emerging coalition who will soon learn the harsh truths of reality; the conspiracy consortium. Tucker’s bill came due once when he was fired from Fox News in 2023. Now, he’s accruing another one under the guise of America’s brave truth-telling podcaster. Tucker claims that he is, “just asking questions,” but really, he’s planting poisonous seeds. Candace Owens is another example of scum floating with scum, trafficking in gross, anti-Semitic theories about the murder of Charlie Kirk. These folks are having their hay day, in no small measure because of the unconstrained nature of the internet. But, their bill will come due soon enough, most likely in court. Just ask Alex Jones.
JD Vance has hitched his wagon to the cuckoo crowd. A lot of people want you to think that he is Trump’s heir apparent, but I am skeptical. One should never take the voters for granted. Megyn Kelly is certainly all in on Vance. Kelly, utterly unrecognizable from her Fox News days, calls Vance, “48.” But we have three more years of President Trump to weather. Three years is an eternity in politics.
The bill always comes due.
We even saw it here in Omaha. We were a purple city with a Republican administration, but Mayor Jean Stothert got out over her skis and saddled Omaha with a streetcar that nobody wanted. Worse yet, she contracted to pay for the streetcar on spec. She based this project on projected future earnings, which is a decidedly non-conservative way of doing business. She promised that no tax dollars would be spent on the streetcar, but the people didn’t buy it. Warren Buffett didn’t buy it either. When the voters finally got to have their say last May, her bill finally came due. Now, we have our first African-American mayor, and Omaha is officially a blue dot in a red state. I am doubtful as to whether Omaha will ever turn red again. Meanwhile, the bill is literally coming due for the streetcar as local businesses are negatively impacted because of street construction. Thanks a lot, ex-Mayor Stothert. Enjoy St. Louis.
We’ve now come full circle. “The bill always comes due,” is a tried and true conservative maxim used against communists and socialists, like Zohran Mamdani. New York chose to elect an overtly socialist mayor. They’re gonna get what they voted for… Good and hard. The bill will come due for them, likely sooner than later. God knows how many decent folks who did not vote for Mamdani will be harmed in the process.
I can’t even begin to estimate the amount of the bill for those associated with Jeffrey Epstein. I think the cost will be incalculable.
I anticipate that 2026 will be the year of the bill. We simply cannot continue as we have with a heedless, unbridled ruling class pinballing from one trendy socio-political caprice to the next. History proves me right. Current patterns indicate that I’m right. Conservative doctrine has demonstrated time and again that I’m right. Sooner or later, the bill will come due.
When it finally happens, don’t say you weren’t warned. And if you’re applying this stark principle of conservatism only to your opponent, then you haven’t been paying attention.
Happy new Year.