“Drain the swamp!” Those three words were more than a mantra for the Trump administration. They were shorthand for reducing the number of nameless, faceless bureaucrats who control the lives of Americans by enforcing a plethora of government regulations without ever standing for election. Now, with President Joe Biden in the White House, the swamp is again overflowing.

OpentheBooks.com recently published the latest appalling figures on the federal government’s “internal” spending. One example: The Biden White House is the most costly in our nation’s history, even though the president has been in office less than a year. His White House employs more than 560 people with an annual payroll of $50 million. In contrast, former President Donald Trump’s White House employed about 400 people with an annual payroll of $40 million.

The trend under Biden is not just up — it’s soaring. The federal government, under Biden, now costs American taxpayers $2.3 million per minute. We warned this would happen during a Biden presidency in our book, “We Didn’t Fight for Socialism: America’s Veterans Speak Up.”

Socialist policies inevitably increase the size and power of government, and Biden’s policies are textbook socialism. Within days of taking office, he began restoring regulations Trump eliminated and ensured lifetime tenure for bureaucrats to monitor your compliance.

The Democrat-controlled Congress is aiding and abetting the Biden administration’s explosive growth in the size and cost of government — and adding to the inflationary burdens on American taxpayers. Every piece of legislation passed by Congress results in an average of 27 new regulations.

The stupidly called “paid for” $1.2 trillion “infrastructure bill” the president signed last Friday is a bureaucrat’s dream. It’s full of what Bidenites call “social infrastructure.” An exemplar: a program for charging drivers of hydrocarbon-powered vehicles a mileage fee. This devious way of raising “gas taxes” will require an army of bureaucrats to monitor and manage.

All this will get considerably worse for all Americans if the U.S. Senate affirms the nearly $2 trillion Biden “Build Back Better” plan. We need to pray they don’t.

History shows as the U.S. population grows, so grows our federal government. Today, our nation’s population is growing rapidly, not because new births outnumber deaths — COVID-19 and abortion put an end to that trend — but because immigrants are illegally flooding across our southern border. So far this year, more than 1.7 million have been allowed to enter the United States illegally by the Biden administration.

Immigrants who cross the border illegally could and should be held responsible for breaking our laws and returned to their nations of origin. Instead, the Biden administration is covertly sequestering them all over the United States in the dark of night.

Worse, the American Civil Liberties Union is supporting a lawsuit on behalf of families “separated” while illegally crossing our southern border. Rather than fight this case in federal court, as it should, the Biden Justice Department has devised a novel solution: Settle each case by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in reparations to each person claiming to have been subjected to the “indignity” of being caught breaking U.S. law. In short, the Biden administration has not only opened our border to those who break our laws by coming here illegally but will financially reward them.

American families enduring record-breaking inflation during this year’s holidays need to know Biden’s bloat need not be permanent. We The People can start draining the swamp again in November 2022. It’s a matter of accepting deferred gratification, praying to the good Lord for our nation and taking positive political action. All good reasons for a Happy Thanksgiving.

COPYRIGHT 2021 OLIVER L. NORTH AND DAVID L. GOETSCH