Glenn Beck’s alarm about digital IDs rolling into digital currencies isn’t the rant of a fear-monger — it’s a wake-up call. Conservatives have watched for years as global institutions and technocrats quietly stitch together identity systems and state-backed electronic money, and now ordinary Americans are being told to shrug and “trust the tech.”
This danger isn’t theoretical. Governments from Europe to the U.K. are actively advancing digital identity programs and central-bank-backed digital money experiments that would put unprecedented power over daily life into centralized systems. The European Central Bank continues to push forward with digital-euro experiments, and the U.K. debate over mandatory digital IDs has exposed cybersecurity and civil-liberties risks that should alarm every patriot.
Thankfully, there has been a pushback in Washington that conservative voters demanded. On January 23, 2025 the White House issued an executive order explicitly prohibiting the establishment, issuance, circulation, or use of a CBDC within U.S. jurisdiction — a bold step to protect American financial sovereignty and personal privacy from state-run digital money. This policy direction reflects what millions of Americans have argued: we will not surrender our financial freedom to a programmable currency.
Legislators have matched rhetoric with action, introducing bills that would lock down protections against retail CBDCs and restrict central banks from creating direct-to-consumer digital money. Members of Congress are proposing concrete statutes to prevent the government from weaponizing currency as a surveillance tool, and that kind of legal backbone is exactly what’s needed to keep liberty intact.
Even within the Fed the language has changed — officials insist the U.S. is not pursuing a retail CBDC, and the Fed’s leaders have been forced to clarify their position publicly. Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress he wouldn’t launch a CBDC while he’s in charge, and Fed officials have even stepped back from using the confusing “wholesale CBDC” phrase, underlining that Americans should be skeptical of any new centralized currency scheme.
But the struggle isn’t over. Centralized digital IDs tied to government-backed wallets create a single point of control and a juicy target for hackers and abuse, as critics recently warned about U.K. plans that would centralize photographs, birth dates, immigration status and more. When identity systems and programmable money come together, the risk isn’t just data theft — it’s the ability of officials or unelected bureaucrats to decide who gets to buy, sell, travel, or receive healthcare. That’s not security, it’s coercion.
Patriots should celebrate the wins but remain vigilant: support laws that enshrine privacy and prohibit retail CBDCs, demand transparency on any digital ID proposals, and push for decentralization and self-custody solutions that preserve individual liberty. The fight for economic and personal freedom is on — it’s time for everyday Americans to stand loud and proud for sovereignty over their money and identity.
