The Power of the Purse is the power to control spending.  It resides with the House of Representatives.

Our Constitution sets up three branches of government and divides power between them.  This was done on purpose to make it difficult for the government to move quickly unless there was broad popular support by the people.

Constitutional Spending Process

To fund something (Program A for example) multiple steps must occur:  

1. The House must vote to fund Program A

(The Constitution mandates that all federal government spending must originate in the House of Representatives – the body closest to the American people.)

2. The Senate must vote to fund Program A

(The Senate must get at least 60 votes for Program A to overcome a filibuster that would block the bill.)

3. The President must sign the funding bill for Program A

If any of these steps fail, Program A does not get funded.  The “checks and balances” constitutional government is designed to limit spending on frivolous projects that do not have broad support.

Recent big government Congresses have reversed this constitutional process.  They often put the entire year's spending into a single Omnibus bill.  (Omnibus equals everything.)  The Big Spenders in Congress wait until the week before the funding from last year's bill expires before voting on the huge Omnibus spending bill.   They argue that it must be passed with no discussion or debate to “keep the government  from shutting down”.  

Now to “defund” something (Program A) the same multiple steps must occur:

1. The House must vote to remove funding from Program A

2. The Senate must vote to remove funding from Program A

(The Senate must get at least 60 votes to remove funding for Program A to overcome a filibuster that would block the bill.)

3. The President must sign the bill to remove the funding for Program A

No longer is it difficult for the government to “fund” – it is now difficult to “defund”.  

The result is Congress has largely abandoned the controls that encouraged taxpayer money to be spent wisely. Congress routinely spends much more money than taxes collected.  Lobbyists who help write the omnibus bill get all the money they want – with little regard to broad support.  Lobbyists have been known to give congressmen gifts in exchange for passing the spending.  This is a reason so many in Congress get rich while they are in “service” to their constituents.