Month: December 2022

BACKGROUND: The politicization of the media, business, the military, unions, social media, entertainment, etc. etc. has also infected many Boards of Education and it is not going well.  Simply stated, education in America is a failed organization and getting worse.

Previously I have published essays on education describing how to fix the system beginning with the elimination of the federal Department of Education and working down the organization to the local level.  But, as the saying goes, “The chances of that happening are between slim and none and Slim just left town.” 

The need is great; a short-hand look at pre-Covid education results tells a very grim story. 

Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the U.S.; that’s a student every 26 seconds, 7,000 per school-day. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time. Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students. In the U.S. high school dropouts commit about 75% of the crimes.

Oregon will soon lead the nation in percent of students who graduate from high school. Why?  In 2021 Oregon Governor Kate Brown cancelled the proficiency standards for reading, writing and math for high school graduation requirements. That simple piece of legislation told the teachers, Principals, Superintendents and School Board members that they will not be held accountable for passing out high school diplomas to functionally illiterate graduates. 

A recent Arlington Virginia Board of Education proposal would force educators to allow students an unlimited number or retakes on assignments, ban giving out extra credit and would effectively eliminate homework by prohibiting it from being graded. 

December, 2021, many of California’s largest school districts are dropping “D” and “F” grades.  The move is called “competency-based learning.”

Providence, Rhode Island, only 5% of eighth graders are proficient in math; Newark New Jersey, 21% proficiency in math; Wisconsin, Black American eighth graders perform only slightly better than white fourth graders in reading and math.

And the Covid impact on education made all of this worse.

But, in 2017 we spent $14,100 per K-12 student which was 37% higher than the average among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member counties.

Bottom Line, two thirds of our high school graduates are not adequately prepared to be all they can/should be.  And this is not a new problem, 20% of American adults cannot name even one of the three branches of government.

Post-election, 2022, Boards of Education are forming up with their new members in the 13,187 school districts representing 131,000 elementary and high schools with 47.8 million students across the U.S. The purpose of this essay is to suggest it is very possible for a school district to take on the issues, at their level, fix what is wrong with education at their level, and consistently graduate high school students who are proficient in reading, writing, math, science and history.

My purpose in publishing this essay now is that if any of you reading this are getting the impression that your newly-elected Board of Education appears to be concerned with everything except excellent academic achievement, then what follows is a scenario you might want to suggest to your school board members.

With that background, let’s take a look at what the minutes of a recent Board of Education meeting might look like.  President of the local school board speaking:

Good morning and thank you for coming in for this Saturday session with just us leaders, the Superintendent, all of our school Principals along with our newly-elected Board members.

Let’s begin with the bottom line, the nation is getting an “F” in education and we in this room are not immune to that disease. Let me explain just how bad it is.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)is the only assessment that measures what U.S. students know and can do in various subjects across the nation. Also known as The Nation’s Report Card, they grade mathematics, reading, science, writing, technology, arts, civics, geography, economics, and U.S. history for grades 4^th and 8^th every 2 years and 12^th grade every 4 years.

In 2019, pre-Covid, NAEP tested 150,600 4^th-grade students, 143,100 8^th-grade, and 26,700 12^th-grade students.  Here is a summary pulled from a large comprehensive report:

Reading, NOT proficient: 59% 4^th-grade, 66% 8^th-grade, 76%, 3 of every 4 high school seniors are NOT proficient in reading.

Math, NOT proficient: 65% 4^th-grade, 66% 8^th-grade, almost 2 out of 3 high school seniors NOT proficient in math.

Other subjects were even worse.  For high school seniors 88% NOT proficient in history, 77% NOT proficient in writing ability and 78% NOT proficient in science. That’s the bad news; the worse news is that Covid negatively impacted those results.  

Neither you nor I can fix the Washington or State bureaucratic education mess and there is nothing we can do about the other failing school districts so we won’t even try.  But what we can do is make sure we do everything in our power with the leaders in this room to ensure our high school seniors can read, write and solve math problems at a proficient level. The bottom line is to keep education decision-making close to the point of execution. 

There are two uncompromised rules that will guide us forward. First, we in this room are responsible for providing a safe and secure environment for learning on all school property.  Secondly, the leadership group here in this room is responsible for teaching every subject every day to every student to a prescribed standard that will translate to proficiency.

We must begin with the premise that an organization without standards is a failed organization, period. Success in education does not emanate from more guidance from above, not from more money from the feds, or interference from the Education Unions. Excellence in education flows from establishing standards and from enforcing those standards at the local level every day for every student in every class.

The Board members are in agreement about the course of action I am about to describe.  I have been over this with your Superintendent and he is all in.  Our purpose here today is to get you completely read in on the details and committed to execute. We are going to create and operate inside a culture of accountability and academic excellence.

BOARD ACCOUNTABILITY: We, the Board, are accountable to the people who elected us to make overall policy decisions, establish direction and define the end state.

SUPERINTENDENT ACCOUNTABILITY: The Superintendent is accountable for two things:

One, and this is the overall key to success, is to articulate in plain language an achievable standard for every subject, every grade K-12. Stated another way, what every student is to know at school-year’s end.  It is all about achieving 100% proficiency.

This process of determining standards will begin with a small group of kindergarten teachers and a couple elementary Principles meeting with the Superintendent to discuss and determine the end-state for the kindergarten academic year.  They will research the state standards, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) proficiency standards and the thoughts of those at the meeting. The result will be the standard for every kindergarten student in our district. Seated at that meeting will be the first-grade teachers who will hear the discussion and gain a clear understanding that the end of kindergarten year standard will be the start point for first grade academics. Additionally, having establish the end-of-year standard, each group will, before adjourning, break the standard down into 6-week instructional periods. That process will continue for a few weeks until there is an end-of-year standard for every subject in every grade.

Secondly, the Superintendent is accountable for ensuring that every Principal is using these standards for academic achievement. He will be making frequent visits to your schools to observe and draw conclusions about how you are performing your duties.   

Before we get into Principals’ accountability, let me see a show of hands, how many of you make it a point every day to spend at least one entire period sitting in the back of the room of an ongoing class? Ok, so that is generally not happening. More on that in a few minutes.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITY: You are accountable for day-to-day execution of the academic agenda.  This begins by requiring every teacher to develop and provide to you the lesson plans that will lead to achieving the end-of-year standard. You must approve each of those lesson plans.  Let’s say it is the halfway point of the first semester and you are sitting in on the 5^th grade math class.  You have with you the lesson plan; is the teacher ahead, behind, on point or off track?  If behind or off track, you must take steps to lead that teacher toward a successful outcome. Ignoring the end-of-year standard is unacceptable.

You, the Principal, are accountable for constantly grading the work of all your teachers. Assessing, counseling, mentoring teachers is your responsibility. In any profession, be it legal, medicine, military, etc. there are some who should be doing something else for a living.  Be on the lookout for these two types of teachers. One, is the teacher who consistently has failing student and will defend themselves by saying, ‘ I can teach them the subject but I can’t make them learn.’  Clearly a cop-out.  On the other end of the scale is the teacher who creates an atmosphere where-in students want to learn.  Keeping a failing teacher on your staff is unacceptable.

A second question for you Principals; how many of your teachers routinely give quizzes?  Hmm, I hear you saying that giving quizzes is not a frequently-used tool. That response from you begs another question.  How do your teachers know on a continuous basis if all the students got it?  Are all of the students comfortable with what was presented this week and ready to move on?  Without testing, how do they know?

The point being, we cannot allow a student to get behind.  If they are behind now it will only be exacerbated moving forward.  A staggering national statistic is that every school day about 7,000 kids drop out of school.  The overriding reason is that they got behind in the early grades, more-so the next year and the next until they find themselves in a hopeless state of mind and take the easy road, drop-out-of-school and thereafter, in overwhelming numbers, enter a life of crime and/or welfare.

In June of 2019 it was reported that 60% of North Carolina fourth graders were not proficient in reading.  Are we naïve enough to believe they probably caught up in fifth grade?  The reality is they probably regressed the following year and years after.  Obviously, North Carolina schools are not teaching to standard and are not dealing with problem students in a timely manner.

Here is what we are going to do, teach, test, teach, test routinely and immediately identify any student who gets behind. What do you do with a student who fails the final exam in June?  A massive summer session for 60% of all the 4^th graders who are behind in reading plus every other student who is behind in math is not in anyone’s budget. To just rely on periodic final exams, be they 6-week exams or end of semester exams, to determine if a student is proficient does and will not work.  Teach/test, teach/test is a viable solution. The alternative is to just pass them on to the next grade where they will get further behind

If a student fails the Thursday quiz, he/she needs to catch up by Monday because the teacher will be moving on to more difficult material.  This is where the teacher/student/parent contract kicks in. More on that in a few minutes.  Additionally, you, the principal could set up a tutoring program whereby volunteers are available for after-school assistance.  

You, the Principal, have to be sitting in on classes routinely. Otherwise, how will you know whether or not teachers are teaching to standard, testing to standard so that all students are on schedule to be proficient in all subjects when the school-year ends?

An organization without standards is a failed organization. We can always hope for a positive outcome but hope is not a process.

TEACHER ACCOUNTABILITY is simply staying in their lane, teaching and testing their subject to standard. Sex education, gender, Critical Race Theory, and politics are the parents’ responsibility and are absolutely forbidden subjects is our school system. I need a show of hands that you all are completely on board with that directive. If one of your teachers does have discussions with their students on these subjects you will initiate a formal counseling session with that teacher, back it up with a written statement and inform the Superintendent of the actions taken.  If there is a second occurrence in your school, the Superintendent will initiate a formal counseling session with you. Everyone clear on that?

PARENT ACCOUNTABILITY: Parents are a critical element in the education equation.  Get them involved and make them understand that they are also accountable.  The first parent-teacher meeting normally takes place some days or weeks after the school-year begins. We are going to invite and encourage parents to meet with your teachers during the week before classes begin.  Every teacher will begin the discussion by explaining the end-of-year standards, the teach/test agenda, there will be homework and the importance of not falling behind and what happens if their student does poorly on a quiz.  The parents will get an email immediately if it is determined a student is behind with instructions for additional homework over the weekend as well as information on the school’s tutor program.

Let me close with a comment about teacher unions; on the national level they have become completely politicalized, try to dictate education policy and are completely out of their lane.  If one of your teachers has a personal issue with our policies or with your leadership, our preference would be for the teacher to use our chain of command to resolve their issues. But if they feel the need to see their union representative, that is their right and we accept that.  What is not acceptable is for any union representative, of their own initiative, to be physically in your school or directly contacting you or your teachers. All union communications and meetings will begin with me, Chairman of the Board of Education and no one else.  I need a show of hands from every person in this room on that issue.

I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, I am not anti-union but the teachers unions have gotten completely off base in this country; making education policy, telling teachers how to teach and what to teach; publicly advocating for or against political issues unrelated to education.  We don’t need that and I will deal with it, not you.

The bottom line of this discussion today is that we are going to create and execute a culture of accountability and academic excellence with no student left behind.

Let me take your questions, I don’t want anyone leaving here today without a complete understanding of the way ahead in our school district.

Author’s comments: Improving education is not rocket science. The point of the above dialogue is that any school district could, and in my estimation, should self-initiate these simple steps and move towards academic excellence.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

The intent of this series has been to answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?”  His point being, at the time he said it, the Republican Party does not stand for anything. 

The intent for the Republicans in the House should be to move quickly with a legislative agenda that will highlight numerous national issues that can be/should be solved during the 118^th Congress.  This will also begin framing the Republican Platform for the 2024 presidential campaign.

Part 1, of this series, how to fix education and rede relations and a plan for immigration reform.

Part 2, election reform.

Part 3, a plan for fixing a dysfunctional Congress. 

Part 4, taking on the bloated bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending by the Executive Branch.

Part 5, terms of office and term limits.

Part 6, campaign finance reform.

Part 7, cleaning up the primary election mess.

Part 8, the IRS and tax reform.

Part 9, universal service for America.

Part 10, and the final part of this series, world peace.

Presumptive Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy speaking:

Russia invades the sovereign nation of Ukraine, February, 2022.  The world watches, in real-time, levels of destruction not seen since World War II news reels that would be shown in movie theaters.

Ninety-eight per cent of the world’s current population of 8-plus billion have no personal recollection of the WWII destruction in Europe. Therefore, this ongoing invasion is a game changer invoking questions like, how could this possibly happen today?  Why have we not stopped it?  What can we do?  How can they deliberately target women and children?  Who can help?  Should some collective group of countries join forces and counter attack Russian forces?  What should NATO do?  Should the EU put together a counter offensive force?  Who would/should lead such a force?  Can Ukrainians ever rebuild the thousands of destroyed structures?  If the invasion ended tomorrow, where would the returning refugees live?  Who could/should finance rebuilding Ukraine? Where will they find food and clean water?  Where will they work?   Will there be electricity?” etc. etc. etc.  The questions are almost endless because it is an understatement to say, this is unprecedented. We need answers and actions.

The daily media dose of reality has touched nearly everyone’s heart and mind with feelings of disbelief, distrust, disgust and anger towards Putin and his forces; empathy, sorrow and compassion for the millions of in-country displaced Ukrainians, out of country refugees, those mourning killed or missing family members and what the Ukrainian people face in the foreseeable future. 

 The international after-action-review must not be a thousand-page bureaucratic study published in a couple of years from now which would be worse than worthless. What it must be is a succinct accounting of three simple, but essential, questions:

First, what, collectively, did we, the world, do well?

Second, what should we, could we, the world, have done better?

Third, and most importantly, how can we institutionalize a faster, better, more organized, more aggressive and all-inclusive plan for preemptive actions that would preclude this ever happening again? Let me emphasize the word preemptive because the world watched Russia mass forces and equipment for months and did nothing. That question leads us to a discussion of Russia, Ukraine, the United Nations, world peace and the uprising.

BACKGROUND leading to a proposed solution:

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS:

With technically advanced machine guns, tanks and chemical warfare, World War I was optimistically referred to as the war to end all wars.  January, 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson outlined an idea for an organization that would be charged with resolving conflicts before they exploded into bloodshed.  In 1919 the structure of The League of Nations was laid out in Paris and the Treaty of Versailles went into effect January, 1920 with 48 member countries. The U.S. Congress failed to ratify our membership in the League.  Between 1920 and World War II there were numerous opportunities to act, but it never did.  The League of Nations was abandoned during World War II.  The League was not necessarily a bad idea, but numerous times, when actions were required, European countries found it too difficult to put together an effective united front against an aggressor to include the rise of Germany, pre-World War II. 

THE UNITED NATIONS:

June, 1941 representatives from thirteen nations (the U.S. was not included) met in London and signed the Declaration of St. James’s Palace expressing a vision for a postwar world order.  The next step was the Atlantic Conference August, 1941, at which President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill laid out a more detailed form of the alliance called The Atlantic Charter. The final step was the Yalta Conference, February, 1945 when Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed on the establishment of the United Nations as well as the structure of the Security Council.   

Despite having endured for 77 years, generally speaking, the UN is a weak-intentioned bureaucratic mass that is involved in everything and accomplishes very little.  Case in point, did the UN respond to the Russian invasion?  Yes, and for the UN is was remarkable fast; on March 3^rd, one week after the invasion, they voted overwhelmingly for a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces.  Wow, that must have shaken Putin to his core.

The UN is an established international organization perfectly positioned to be a greater force for the greater good for the collective world.  But in its current condition it is incapable of deterring or bringing to a close a conflict such as exists in Ukraine today. We need to completely rethink this issue, right now.

THE UN TODAY:

In order to understand what must be fixed, here is a short-hand view of what is wrong. The UN consists of six principal organs:

General Assembly

Security Council

Economic and Social Council

Secretariat

International Court of Justice

Trusteeship Council (currently inactive)

Of these, the General Assembly and Security Council being the dominant pieces.

THE SECURITY COUNCIL:

The Security Council consists of five permanent members, the U.S., China, Russia, France and the UK (allies during WW II) and ten elected members.  The presidency of the Council rotates among the fifteen members, each serving for one month.  Is anyone surprised that Russia was president in February 2022 when they attacked Ukraine?

Under the United Nations Charter, the principle function of the Security Council is to:

Ensure international peace and security. There it is in black and white, ensure international peace and security as its number one responsibility.  Additionally, the subset authority allows the Council to:  

Investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction.

Recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement.

Formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments.

Determine the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression and to recommend what action should be taken.

Call on Members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression.

Take military action against an aggressor.

Right there in the Charter are the elements necessary for world peace. Given these clearly articulated responsibilities and authority, we can conclude that the UN in general and the Security Council in particular have been abject failures for almost eight decades.

First of all, can you imagine a large international company CEO having fifteen Executive Vice Presidents, each given the opportunity to lead the company for a month every fifteen months; thereby allowing each to bring his or her biases and priorities to the forefront.  It’s insane. A perfect formula for failure.

A UN INITIATIVE FOR WORLD PEACE:

How is world peace possible? In a word, deterrence.  That is, fear, in the mind of any potential aggressor, of rapid retaliation by a superior force.  It is possible for the United Nations to establish and sustain a world military force to deter and, if necessary, bring to bear on the battlefield the collective military might of the other 194 member nations?  Here is an outline:

Every member nation would agree to contribute to a world-wide deterrent force that can be deployed anywhere in the world within a seven-day period.  Every nation will contribute according to its capabilities.  Some examples:

The U.S. has the greatest capability in the world for world-wide force projection.  For example, the world watched in awe in 1990 as the U.S. deployed an overwhelming force to the Gulf War and, in two days of fighting, defeated Iraqi forces which had invaded Kuwait.  One U.S. contribution to the UN force could be our entire air-cargo fleet to fly directly to various countries and transport their force contribution directly to the targeted area.   Another critical U.S. contribution could be our fleet of about 650 aerial refueling tankers; by comparison, the remaining countries have about 250. 

Countries with few military resources (36 nations do not have a defense budget) could provide field hospitals, portable field surgical units with doctors and nurses, air craft maintenance capabilities, truck drivers, border patrol personnel, etc. Nations with only small maneuver organizations could provide, for example, man portable air defense and anti-tank teams and snipers.  There would be a very long list of non-combatant rear-area support requirements.  Countries with established combat forces could provide special operations personnel, armored units, light infantry, artillery, helicopters, tactical aircraft, naval vessels, air defense, combat engineers, all the elements for a military theater of operations. Selected nations in several regions would be responsible for providing an airport that can be quickly transformed into a full-up military operation with multiple runways, an expanded tarmac, maintenance facilities and housing for the military contingent.  

The force could be called the International Deterrence Force, IDF.  The “D” in IDF definitely does not stand for Defense.  The IDF will not be designed for defense. It will send an undeniable message to any nation that is contemplating an offensive action that within seven days an overwhelming world-wide force can be in-place for a counter offensive.  That is the real-world definition of deterrence.  The UN/IDF could borrow NATO’s Article 5 concept; an attack on one member is an attack against all members.

Who pulls this all together and leads the force?  A 4-star military leader with senior command experience would be nominated by the UN Secretary General.  After being thoroughly vetted, he/she will be voted on by the General Assembly by secret ballot. A majority vote will secure a two-year assignment which can be extended to four years.  The IDF Commander will select a deputy and the two of them will put together a lean-and-mean, full-time, rapidly deployable international staff.  The commander’s headquarters will be in Europe while the deputy will be in Asia.  For the sake of continuity, upon completion of the IDF Commander’s tour, the deputy will get first consideration as the replacement commander. The IDF staff will consist of subordinate commanders for ground forces, air, naval, theater logistics and humanitarian issues. 

Every six months the Commander will personally brief the UN General Assembly on IDF readiness.  For every nation, their IDF contribution will be subject to inspection by the IDF Commander/Deputy Commander and their staffs. Every nation must regularly inform the IDF when their force will be engaged in military exercises so that they can be observed.  The IDF Commander will establish and publish standards for every contributed element.  Every nation will provide a very detailed quarterly readiness report on the trained-to-standard and deployability status of their IDF contribution. 

The IDF headquarters will maintain a robust intel-processing element linked to the intel gathering capabilities of all 195 countries.  

International Deterrence Force Condition, IDFCon: All contributing nations will exist in a state of one of four different readiness IDFCon’s.

IDFCon 1:  Normal peacetime condition.  A completed plan will be in-place in every member nation.  Readiness standards will be in force for every IDF element.

IDFCon 2:  The Secretary General and IDF Commander having identified a potential threat to a member nation, will tailor a force for deployment and place them on 24-hour alert.

IDFCon 3:  All personnel and equipment for the designated units will move to assembly areas.  Deployment aircraft will move to their first pick-up airfield. 

IDFCon 4:  Deployment of all designated deterrence elements to the target area and prepare to initiate an overwhelming counter offensive. 

FUNDING: 

The UN will budget for the two IDF headquarters.  The participating nations will budget for and fund their participating units and sustain them at trained-and-ready IDF combat-ready standards.  

The IDF Operations Plan will first and foremost be designed with the intent for every element to rapidly deploy to an area of operation where they can represent an overwhelming deterrent force from all 194-member nations.  But the total force may not, in all cases, be necessary.  Therefore, the next planning step is to have the capability to rapidly tailor a force for scenarios that require a lesser, but still overwhelming force sufficient to deter, and if necessary counter attack. As the saying goes, always take a gun to a knife fight.  Two examples:

An attack on small-country “A” in Africa appears imminent by a larger neighboring country “B”.  The IDF Commander determines that inserting a couple infantry battalions on the ground could sufficiently deter the attack. Using the concept of intent to always have an overwhelming advantage, the commander will in fact deploy a full infantry brigade along with combat supporting forces and tactical air support. Result, Country “B” packs up and goes home. Deterrence, a powerful force for world peace. 

A more serious and far-ranging scenario might look like this:  China continues to threaten Taiwan with aggressive air and naval operations.  It is determined that the demonstrations are a rehearsal for an actual attack.   The Secretary General and IDF Commander agree to go to IDFCon 3.  China’s achilleas heel is imported gas and oil.  Inform China that a combined naval force from member nations is enroute to the South China Sea to create an impenetrable blockade to all incoming gas and oil tankers.  Additionally, missiles and aircraft capable of taking out the gas and oil pipelines from Russia will be immediately forward deployed.  Execution of this scenario could shut down China in a few weeks and result in half billion unemployed workers.  The Secretary General will request China publicly sign a pledge to acknowledge that forevermore Taiwan will be considered an independent nation free of all ties to China and provocative military actions against Taiwan is forbidden. Deterrence in action in support of world peace. 

BOTTOM LINE ON THE UN:

Having laid out a concept of operations for an International Deterrence Force capable of achieving world peace, it is time to admit that, given today’s reality, it cannot happen inside the existing UN.

The UN has been a failed institution since its inception in 1945 for one reason, the veto.  At the Yalta Conference in 1945 President Roosevelt, General Secretary Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill agreed that each of the permanent members of the Security Council was to be granted veto power over any resolution under consideration.  The UN Secretary General is a powerless position, the power resides in the Security Council.  More specifically, the power resides with the five permanent members, U.S., UK, France, China and Russia.

Every significant resolution to be considered by the General Assembly must first be voted out of the Security Council.  Each of the fifteen members (five permanent and ten elected for a temporary term) have one vote.  But here is the problem, the Charter says, quote, affirmative decisions shall be made by a vote of nine members, including the concurring votes of all five of the permanent members.  One veto by a permanent member and the resolution is dead. I say again, all five of the permanent members must vote yes. Most would agree that Communist China and Communist Russia will never agree to changes to the UN Charter that would stand-up the IDF. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the unprecedented civilian casualties and wanton destruction of civilian property has become a wake-up call for the world.  Now is the time, and it may never be more relevant, to strike with a plan that will, to the greatest extent possible, guarantee world peace.  There are two courses of action, one internal to the UN and the second external:

COURSE OF ACTION 1, INTERNAL UN UPRISING: 

The Secretary General could work to garner support from, let’s say, about 150 member nations for a change to the UN Charter.  The changes, none of which are currently authorized, could be as follows:

Do away with the Security Council and/or the five-permanent-member concept and/or the one-vote-veto rule.

Move the mission statement, that for seven plus decades has been the unfulfilled responsibility of the Security Council, to the Secretariat; that is, ensure international peace and security.

Replace the appointment process for a new Secretary General with a system whereby anyone from a member nation can campaign for the position.  A new Secretary General will be elected for a 6-year term by a secret ballot majority vote of the General Assembly.  Proceed to establish the International Deterrence Force.

It is highly unlikely this course of action will ever happen.

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, UPRISING EXTERNAL TO THE UN:

The U.S. should initiate actions to seek support from most of the 195 current UN member nations to join a new organization called United for World Peace. The organization would look like this:

A small headquarters anywhere in the world.

An elected president for one six-year term.

A fully operational International Deterrence Force as previously described.

The United for World Peace mission statement could be pulled directly from the UN Charter as follows:

One, ensure international peace and security.

Two, investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction.

Three, recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement.

Four, formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments.

Five, determine the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression and to recommend what action should be taken.

Six, call on Members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression. 

Seven, take military action against an aggressor.

UNITED STATES LEAD:

The U.S. could lead this initiative and it should be done based on an international after-action-review of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which answered the three important questions:

First, what, collectively, did we, the world, do well?

Second, what should we, could we, the world, have done better?

Third, and most importantly, how can we institutionalize a faster, better, more organized, more aggressive and all-inclusive plan for preemptive actions that would preclude this ever happening again?

The five selling points for a United for World Peace organization are obvious:

One, the UN Charter, with its one veto policy cannot be fixed and renders the UN helpless.

Two, we must prevent a repeat of a Ukrainian-like disaster.

Three, we must be proactive with an overwhelming deterrence force continuously in place.

Four, NATO, in being since 1949, is a perfect example of deterrence in action for forty years of the Cold War.

Five, for all United for World Peace member nations, an attack against one would be an attack against all.

Every member nation would commit some resource to the International Deterrence Force in accordance with their capability. Why would countries sign up to be a member? Here is a starter list of answers as to why a United for World Peace organization is needed now and why it would be an easy sell at this point in time. 

Middle East countries and Israel are fearful of the hegemony intentions of a nuclear-equipped Iran but powerless individually to stop it. South Korea and Japan are very nervous about North Korea’s aggressive offensive missile and nuclear programs.  Taiwan is fearful of a China invasion. Europe is fearful of more Russian aggression.  Former Soviet Republics are fearful that they may be next on Putin’s list. The Baltic countries and Finland are fearful of Russia. India is in a constant state of unrest over China’s border incursions. Who knows what the next move may be by dictators in Latin America?  African border disputes are a recurring concern.  Nations’ support for terrorist activities threatens the world. Aggressors who would use cyber-attacks to inflict humanitarian and economic disaster on another nation is a growing threat. 

It is not difficult to believe the United for World Peace organization could quickly become a 150-nation force for peace.

CONCLUSIOINS for both courses of action:

A successful United for World Peace organization (Course of action 2) could be subsumed by the UN if they can find a way to revise the existing Charter (course of action 1). 

With an International Deterrence Force in place there is no longer a requirement for NATO. The combined defense budgets of the NATO members was $1.2 trillion in 2022.

With the IDF in place, defense funding could probably be reduced around the world by hundreds of billions of dollars through elimination of redundant force capabilities. For example, right now NATO members (Germany in particular) are ramping up their defense spending for forces that may, in fact, be redundant beyond IDF requirements.  

There will no longer be a need for nations’ bilateral treaties for mutual defense.  

Since 2016 the European Union has been talking about the need for an EU armed force.  Cancel that nonsense. 

With world peace assurances in place, the next step could be a world without nuclear weapons, chemical weapons or biological weapons.

The UN peacekeeping force budget for 2021 was $6.38 billion.  With active world-wide deterrence and an overwhelming rapidly-deployable counter-offensive force, no in-place peacekeeping forces will be necessary.

The next step could be for the IDF Commander to visit North Korea to discuss ICBM and nuclear testing.  Then on to Iran to discuss Iran’s role as the world’s leading supporter of terrorist organizations, etc.; proactive measures.

With a proactive International Deterrence Force in place, no nation would ever need to feel alone or stand alone.

PUTTING WORLD PEACE IN PERSPECTIVE:

The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic wherein We-The-People delegate our responsibilities to elected representatives.  We are a Democracy; a form of government where every person has a voice. For the past 250 years this transformational success story has made us the envy of the world. Through the decades we expanded across the continent. We led the world by outlawing the scourge of slavery. We transformed from an agrarian society into the world’s leading industrial powerhouse.  We rapidly expanded into a world military power, fought and won two World Wars and then benevolently helped rebuild the defeated nations.  We have explored space and shared our findings. We lead and won the forty-year Cold War against the USSR. But there remains one final task to transform the world into a better, kinder, safer place than it has ever been; a tremendous undertaking that no other nation is capable of performing.  The United States of America must create the conditions that will guarantee world peace forever.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

During a press conference, January 2022, President Biden, insinuating that republicans only want to criticize his programs, asked the rhetorical question, “What are Republicans for?”  Well, Mr. President, the Republicans in the 118^th Congress, representing all Americans are for what we have been talking about for the last couple weeks. Let me recap:

One, education results are pathetic and getting worse.  We must transform the system.  Cost to taxpayers, zero.

Two, we must stop the massive flow of illegal immigrants forever, redeploy the Border Patrol agents to stop criminals, drugs and terrorists and provide the hard-working, law-abiding immigrants a path to citizenship.  Cost to taxpayers zero, saving billions.

Three, without election reform we are in a category with despicable third-world dictatorships.  Cost to the taxpayers to reform the election system, zero.

Four, our Congress is dysfunctional; it is wasting hundreds of billions of dollars each year and hurting all Americans. Cost to reform it, zero.

Five, massive bureaucracy and excessive spending by the Executive Branch must get fixed.  Cost to the taxpayers zero, saving billions.

Six, we are for changing federal government terms of office and imposing term limits. Cost to the taxpayers, zero.

Seven, unconstrained political campaign contributions have threatened the viability of our election system. Cost to fix it, zero.

Eight, make the primary election process more effective, efficient and fair.  Cost to fix it, zero.

Nine, the current tax code and a bloated, inefficient, incompetent, weaponized IRS must be completely rebuilt. Cost to the taxpayers zero, saving billions. 

Ten, universal service for America will transform the nation and return a culture of accountability, trust and respect. Taxpayers will finance this investment and it may well be the best money we ever spend.

Eleven, world peace is within the art of the possible. The U.S. must lead this initiative; we are the only ones who can do it. Cost to taxpayers, zero and it will save hundreds of billions of dollars world-wide in defense spending.

From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, when taken at the flood leads one to fortune.” There will never be a more appropriate time than now to pursue these transformational issues for the benefit of every American.

There is currently considerable discussion about the New World Order. Well, here is a new twist on The New World Order; call it World Peace.

Thank you for meeting with me over the past few days to gain an understanding of new initiatives for the 118^th Congress that define what the Republicans stand for. This is what we intend to do for, not to the American people. 

Author’s note:  This concept of ops can be found in FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, chapter 8

The Republican Party cannot afford to miss an opportunity to pass this transformational program for world peace.   Again, I ask, if you have contact with any movers-and-shakers in Washington, please provide them a copy of this plan.  Thank you.  Marv

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

The intent of this series is to answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?”  His point being, at the time he said it, the Republican Party does not stand for anything. 

The intent for the Republicans in the House should be to move quickly with a legislative agenda that will highlight numerous national issues that can be/should be solved during the 118^th Congress.  This will also begin framing the Republican Platform for the 2024 presidential campaign.

Part 1, of this series, how to fix education and race relations and a plan for immigration reform.

Part 2, election reform.

Part 3, a plan for fixing a dysfunctional Congress. 

Part 4, taking on the bloated bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending by the Executive Branch.

Part 5, terms of office and term limits.

Part 6, campaign finance reform.

Part 7, cleaning up the primary election mess.

Part 8, the IRS and tax reform.

Part 9, (herewith) universal service for America.

Presumptive Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy speaking:

What I want to do today is present the entire concept of operations for Universal Service for America. Let me begin with some background information.

BACKGROUND: Compulsory national service for all 18-year-old Americans is a program that has never existed in our nation.  It has the potential to transform America in a very positive way. The subject is compulsory national service for all 18-year-old Americans.

As I go through this with you, I will identify each subject area, for example as background I want to say a few words about the draft.

THE DRAFT:  Drafting U.S. men in times of national emergencies has been a tool since the colonies drafted them to fill the ranks of their militias to fight in the Revolutionary War.  The latest draft was in effect from pre-World War II until discontinued in 1973.

Now some comments about the SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM:  The Selective Service System is run by an agency in the Executive Branch of the federal government. Selective Service is responsible for registration and running a draft in times of national emergency.  Currently, men aged 18-25 who are U.S. citizens or are immigrants living in the U.S. are required to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of turning 18.  Immigrants must register within 30 days of arriving in the U.S. Those who fail to register will not be eligible for federal student aid, federal job training, or a federal job and may be prosecuted and face a fine of up to $250,000 and/or jail time of up to five years.

NATIONAL COMMISSION ON SERVICE.  Since the dissolution of the draft in 1973 there have been sporadic conversations about a compulsory national service program for all young adults.  As part of the FY 2017 Defense Authorization Act, President Trump and the Congress established a National Commission on Military, National and Public Service.  Their specific mission was to accomplish two things:  Conduct a review of the military selective service process and consider methods to increase participation in military, national and public service in order to address national security and other public service needs of the nation.

After two and a half years of extensive public engagement, the Commission issued its final report in March 2020, containing its findings and recommendations which include:

One, requiring women to register with the Selective Service System at age 18. 

Two, increasing military outreach, particularly to those areas with a low-propensity to join the armed forces.

Three, expanding educational opportunities during military service and developing strategies to recruit and retain in high-demand occupations.

Four, expanding civic educational programs in schools.

Five, significantly increasing non-military service opportunities in order to create, quote, “an expectation of service” by 2031.

The Commission’s report, entitled Inspire to Serve, explains a vision that, quote, “…. every individual will be exposed to voluntary service opportunities throughout their lifetime, beginning with young people….”.  They also repeatedly commented on the need to create an American culture of service by 2031.  What was most important about the report was what they did not say.  Two things:

One, they completely failed to recognize the elephant in the room, that is, do we need compulsory national service for everyone 18-years old? 

Two, while they frequently emphasized the importance of creating a national culture of service, they provided zero insights into how that was going to be possible. 

CULTURE OF SERVICE:  Over the years I have given the power of culture considerable thought and here are some of my conclusions:

There is a culture, either positive or negative embedded in every organization, large and small, and it is a powerful and pervasive force in every one of them.

You cannot imprint a new culture on an organization with a speech, memo, email or the words in a Commission report.  It is, in and of itself, a huge undertaking and it may take years for it to take hold.

The absolute best way to create the Commission’s culture of service is to make it a centerpiece of a compulsory service program wherein 99 + % of all young adults can be brought into it through daily discussions and actions over a protracted period of time. In due course, 99 + % of the U.S. population will have been subjected to an identical process.  “Indoctrination” is not a bad word when used in a positive way.  Indoctrination during compulsory service is how a “culture of service” can become part of America’s fabric.

The final Commission’s hearings were held by the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11, 2021, where their recommendations appeared to be well received by Senators of both parties.

ABOUT THIS CONCEPT:

A concept of operations is a good place to begin a long-range strategic planning process.  Its purpose is to tell the story by first defining the problem to be solved, providing a vision of the end-state, that is, what we believe can be accomplished, and finally, filling in some of the blanks by describing the who, what, when, where, why and how of the concept.  When completed the concept of operations can become a public affairs tool, a sales pitch and in this case, it is going to become legislation. 

BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING BY DEFINING THE PROBLEM: Begin with these two questions: Are there any identifiable problems that need to be solved? Yes. Is there an existing program that addresses these problems? No. Some wise person once said, “If you cannot define the problem, there is no solution.” So, here are…….

THE PROBLEMS: Let me discuss six youth-related issues that will continue to plague this nation far into the future unless bold steps are taken now.

One, GANGS:  The FBI reports, quote, “there are some 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs with about 1.4 million members criminally active in the U.S. today. Many are sophisticated and well organized; all use violence to control neighborhoods and boost their illegal money-making activities, which include robbery, drug and gun trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, and fraud.”  Youth gangs are the training ground for a life of crime. 

The average number of members per gang is reportedly 42.  About half of all homicides in the U.S. are gang-related.  The Justice Department reports that, quote, “The average age of gang members arrested in the U.S. is 17 or 18.”  This information, in and of itself, is sufficient justification for a mandatory youth program in America.  We need to take these young adults off the streets and introduce them to a different way of life.

Two, DROP-OUTS AND ILLITERACY: On average 7,000 students drop out every school day; 90% of them end up on welfare. Nationally, 68% of all males in prison do not have a high school diploma. The National Assessment of Education Program, NAEP (aka “America’s Report Card”), reports that 64% of high school graduates are below proficiency in reading and 76% below proficiency in math.    

Another example: There are 190 Military Occupational Specialties in the U.S. Army.  In North Carolina for example, 23% of the high school graduates who want to enlist in the Army lack the cognitive skills to perform the most basic tasks and are therefore categorized as functionally illiterate.

An education system in which more than half of students entering 9^th grade either drop out or graduate incapable of further education or satisfactorily performing in the private sector or the military is unsatisfactory.  Increasing proficiency and thereby providing a greater chance for a successful future can be a part of a universal service program.

Three, YOUTH OBESITY: It’s is a common, serious and costly disease.  From 2000 to 2020 obesity in the U.S. population increased from about 30% to 45% while severe obesity doubled.  Half of the obesity problem is with adolescents aged 12-19 years. Mandatory participation in daily exercise and counseling on healthy habits will help to establish a healthier future America. 

Four, CULTURE: It’s a powerful and pervasive force in every organization; it is an organization’s personality. Is it caring, hateful, fast, energetic, visionary, risk-taking, vengeful?  America is drowning in a culture of hate and blame.  A year of character development can change young adults and henceforth, transform America.

Five, RACE: There is no way to explicitly measure the state of race relations in the United States, but they are at least not what they should be.  Babies are not born bigoted, disrespecting or hateful.  While growing up they learn it at home, in school, on the playground and on the street. A universal service program’s character development along with integrated team work every day will enhance the understanding and cooperation among all races represented.  The U.S. military has successfully practiced this solution for decades.

Six, WELFARE:  It is a fact that the more education one completes, the less likely they are to be on welfare. About 32 million households, or 27.1%, benefit from one or more of the following:  Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized lunches, public housing, unemployment and some sort of direct cash assistance.  Universal Service for America will provide young men and women the opportunity to be better prepared to hold good jobs and stay off welfare.

Given that background, the question before us is, should we have universal service for America?

In consideration of these six problem areas (gangs, drop-outs, obesity, culture, race and welfare), the better question is, are these problems in the process of being solved with or by other national programs?  I believe the answer is an unequivocable NO.  Universal Service for America, or as it may become known as, the U.S.A. Program, can be a transformational undertaking and is therefore worth the effort to make it happen. It can become a rite of passage for all Americans. 

What are the EXISTING NATIONAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS?  There are national service organizations in existence, such as AmeriCorps, YouthBuild, Senior Corps and the Peace Corps. What they have in common is that they are relatively small in size and they are 100% voluntary. One of the most enduring government youth programs has been Job Corps, a free residential education and job training program for young adults, aged 16-24, run by the Department of Labor.  Let me provide some revelations about Job Corps in order to make a couple important points.

From July 2016 to June 2017, Job Corps reported 3,673 safety and security incidents among the 79,000 enrollees (drugs, assault, alcohol, security breach, serious injury) according to the General Accounting Office analysis.  Other headlines over the years include, “Job Corps is one of the most wasteful, least effective programs in the federal government.” “Congress spends billions on ineffective job-training programs.” “Job Corps, a recipe for waste, fraud and failure.” “The Federal Job Corps training program is a flop.” “The government has taken on a role for which it was never intended, pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into a broken web of job training.”

The point to be made here is that the federal government has a very long history of attempting to build organizations and run them effectively and efficiently.  Their success rate is about zero.  If we are to move forward with legislation for Universal Service for America, it must NOT be organized, over-regulated and operated by government officials and bureaucrats.

HOW WILL UNIVERSAL SERVICE for AMERICA, BE ORGANIZED AND FUNDED?  To avoid the pit-falls of the decades-old Job Corps program, Universal Service for America should be organized as a non-profit 501C3 national non-governmental organization (NGO).  An NGO is a non-profit, citizen-based undertaking that functions independently of the government.  NGOs are organized on local, national and international levels to serve specific social or political purposes.  Despite their independence from the government, many NGOs receive funding from local, state, and federal governments. 

There are about 1.5 million NGOs operating in the U.S. Widely known examples are Doctors Without Borders and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).  The federal government should fund salaries, housing, meals, transportation and medical services for Universal Service for America.

OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS: For Universal Service for America to be successful it must be based on and encompass, as a minimum, the following nineteen resolutions:

One, at age 17 all U.S. citizens and non-naturalized immigrants must register for Universal Service for America with the existing Selective Service System. Congress should amend the Selective Service System Act with two changes:

Amend the enrollment age from 18 to 17.  This will provide Universal Service for America staff with a valid database of potential participants a year in advance of their reporting for duty at age 18.

Currently the law says that, “Failure to register with the Selective Service is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment.”

The law should be amended to read:  All American citizens must register with the Selective Service within 30 days after their 17^th birthday. Immigrants residing in the United States who are 17 through 25 years of age must registerwithin 30 days of arrival in the U.S. Those who have not done so by their 18^th birthday are subject to imprisonment for five years.  If, after one year in prison, they register with the Selective Service and report to the next available Universal Service for America program, the remainder of the 5-year sentence will be forgiven. 

Two, attendance is mandatory for all high school graduates who are 18 years old plus all 18-year-old non-graduates.  Exceptions include: women who are pregnant or have a child; individuals who are physically or mentally impaired; and those who join the military immediately after high school graduation. Individuals who are head-of-households may apply for an exemption 

Three, Universal Service for America will be 12-months in duration beginning June of each year. This needs some discussion:

Unlike AmeriCorps, YouthBuild and Job Corps that may have just a few thousand up to 75,000 enrollees, Universal Service for America will have about four million enrollees on a continuous basis. That is almost twice the size of the entire U.S. military, active duty, Guard and Reserve combined. 

Compulsory service for all 18-year-old Americans and immigrants will be an enormous undertaking.  For a 2-year program, following the first-year enrollment of 4 million people, all succeeding years would have about 8 million continuously in residence.  For example, a small city, population 50,000, would have about 1,600 participants in residence at all times.  A 2-year program may be too large to run efficiently and effectively.

If it is a 12-month program, that begs the question: What impact will it have on all of our colleges and universities which will, the first year of the program, be without an entire incoming freshman class? There are three possible solutions to this problem:

The first is exempt compulsory service for all high school graduates who will be enrolled as full-time college students by the fall semester after high school graduation.  There are enormous downsides to this alternative: It defeats the overall intent and purpose of the program, which is to create a culture of service for all Americans; many students have no business going to college, but may use college enrollment simply as a way to dodge the compulsory service; and it would create an unhealthy division in America for all times, meaning those who did and those who didn’t “serve”.  It will defeat the advantages resulting from “rite of passage”

A second alternative is to require all college students to attend at least two, and perhaps three or four summer sessions of Universal Service for America; the first immediately following high school graduation.  There are potential downsides for this alternative:  Every June there will be (in round numbers) about 4 million new candidates for Universal Service for America; about 2.5 million will be college bound in September and 1.5 million will begin their full year of service. 

If the college students are to complete their service commitment by attending only summer sessions, after the first year of the service program there will be an additional surge of 2.5 million (those having just finished one year of college), 6.5 million total for the second summer; then a summer surge to 8 million the 3^rd June and to 10.5 million for the 4^th June and 10.5 million every summer thereafter.

The logistics associated with those summer surge numbers would be staggering to begin with and creating these summer surges will likely negatively impact the overall quality of the program. 

The third alternative is for the federal government to create a one-time bailout fund for colleges and universities to offset the no-freshman-class situation that will occur the first, and only, year of Universal Service for America.

Continuing with the program’s operational underpinnings:

Four, after 6 months in the program, anyone who is qualified to do so may enlist in the U.S. military.

Five, all attendees will be provided with a photo identification card with personal description information, a Universal Service for America ID number and expiration date.  The ID will enable free local public transportation while in the program. In conjunction with the Selective Service, each states’ DMV facilities will produce and issue the ID cards.

Six, everyone will be stationed at a location removed from their home of record and will not be stationed with others from their home community.  

Seven, men and women participants will not cohabitate.

Eight, the majority will be stationed in urban areas.

Nine, every full-time attendee will be authorized vacation days over religious holidays and during July or August.

Ten, lodging, meals, uniforms, transportation and medical care will be provided.  Each attendee will receive a stipend of $500 per month.

Eleven, uniforms will consist of dark blue pants/shorts, white shirts and a red hat.  Uniforms will include a name tag, a Universal Service for America logo, which will include the American flag.

Twelve, everyone will participate in physical training five days per week.

Thirteen, everyone will abide by the Universal Service for America Code of Conduct.

Fourteen, no one in the program is exempt from any local, state or federal laws. Universal Service for America will not provide legal counsel to attendees when apprehended for violations of the law.

Fifteen, transgender individuals will abide by local, state and federal rules in force for where they reside during their term of service.

Sixteen, mandatory unannounced drug testing will be the norm.

Seventeen, all will participate in leader training by being team leaders or higher as they move through the program.

Eighteen, this should be a no-frills experience for each participant consisting of long work days, community service on the weekends, and basic accommodations. 

Nineteen, there will be two Universal Service for America websites: One to keep the general public apprised of every aspect of the program; and the second will be an internal site available to leaders and staff.  Innovation has been the lifeblood of this nation since its inception; best-practices will be templated and shared. Additionally, the internal site can be used to clarify program policies and procedures.

PARTICIPATION NUMBERS for a 12-month, all-18-year-old program:  Using 2020 data, it is possible to forecast the approximate number of participants if Universal Service for America could begin operations within the next few years; 3.7 million 18-year-old high school graduates, plus 300,000 18-year-old non-graduates and some, yet to be determined, number of 18-year-old non-citizens living in the U.S.

A TYPICAL DAY in universal service for America:  The intent of the schedule is to address the problems associated with gangs, dropouts, illiteracy, obesity, culture, race relations and welfare. And most importantly, to build a culture of service to society.  The days will be tailored to individual needs with the objective of transforming lives and thereby giving them a greater chance at a successful life.

MORNING SCHEDULE:

Physical training

Gather in a classroom setting, in groups of about 25, with a volunteer instructor, and discuss elements of the Character Development curriculum which I will get to in a few minutes.

For the remainder of the morning, based on arrangements with local schools, those who have not graduated from high school, could, attend virtual classes and gain credits towards receiving a high school diploma.

Through arrangements with local Community Colleges, those participants interested in some type of technical training could take morning classes. 

Those seriously deficient in reading, writing and math skills could attend remedial morning classes.

Have an “open” period each morning for guest speakers, leadership training, lessons on U.S. history and civics; whatever subjects enhance the overall program.

AFTERNOON SCHEDULE:

Generally, this will be the time for community service.  There are so many ways to help out and become visible to the public in positive ways, for example:

Clean parks and playgrounds, volunteer at a museum, assist at a walk-a-thon or community run, deliver food to the homebound, work at a food bank, take care of animals at a shelter, tutor students who have fallen behind in their studies, walk kids home from school, donate blood, help kids with their homework, offer free music lessons, coach a youth sports team, teach adults internet skills, teach CPR, assist immigrants with conversational English, chaperone a field trip, help out at a community center, volunteer as a lifeguard, be a crossing guard, do social media for a local nonprofit, help set up a community event, organize a clothing drive, adopt a highway and clean it, participate in musical performances at nursing homes, deliver groceries to the elderly, write letters for a senior citizen, lead an exercise program, sponsor an animal at the zoo, work for a charity like Habitat for Humanity, volunteer at a fire station, teach self-defense, paint over graffiti, work with special-needs kids; there is no end to this list.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:  Values are key drivers in our lives.  Our values motivate us, determine what we strive to become in both life and in the work place, determine how well we will fit into an organization.  Values are drivers in our decision making and set out moral compass.  Character Development is value development; here are the building blocks:

Five days per week, following breakfast, participants will assemble, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then participate in a character development class.  The Character Curriculum will be, ACCOUNTABILITY, CITIZENSHIP, COMMITMENT, COMPASSION, COURAGE OF CONVICTIONS, COURTESY, CONFIDENCE, HEALTHY HABITS, HONESTY, HONOR, HUMILITY, INTEGRITY, JUDGMENT, LEADERSHIP, MORALITY, PERSEVERANCE, PUNCTUALITY, RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, SELF-RESPECT, SELFLESS SERVICE, SPORTSMANSHIP AND TRUST.

Just imagine the impact this can have with four million young adults having a substantive discussion about one of the subjects in the Character Curriculum five days a week and then adjourning to live/be/do/demonstrate those values on a daily basis.  It is a powerful initiative and will displace our current culture of hate and blame.

GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES FOR USA:  For this Non-Governmental Organization, the federal government will be responsible for financing the bulk of operational costs, including salaries, housing, food, transportation and medical services.

The states will use their Division of Motor Vehicles facilities to produce and issue Universal Service for America ID cards for each 17-year-old as they register with the Selective Service.  

Local officials will provide free-of-charge public transportation.  They will also become points of contact for program officials to coordinate the use of participants to fulfill community service tasks.

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA LEADERS IN THE FIELD: There is and always will be a perfect source of men and women to become qualified leaders and staff for the program. Annually the Defense Department retires thousands of men and women who have just finished 20-30 years of service, are looking for a second career and all have four things in common.  One, they are proven leaders.  two, they have years of experience teaching and training.  Three, they understand standards and have spent two or three decades living up to them.  Four, and perhaps most importantly, they have served in a totally integrated inter-racial environment with an overarching value base of accountability, respect and trust.  What more could one ask for in a person to lead and mentor these young adults?

OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS:  It will not be practical to run the program with individual participants scattered across sparsely populated rural areas.  This will, by necessity, be a program where they are housed and operate in urban areas with population densities of at least 50,000.  The total U.S. population living in areas with at least 50,000 density is about 250 million.  Doing the math, there are about 5,000 urban segments, each with a population of about 50,000.  To accommodate all 4 million participants June through the following May would require housing nearly 800 participants per 50,000-population segment. A city of 200,000 would need to house 3,200 (800 x 4) etc. across the U.S. urban landscape. 

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA HEADQUARTER’S OPERATIONAL CONCEPT:  Centralized planning with emphasis on maximum decentralized execution is a must.  The federal government is infamous for getting it backwards. When they attempt to run an operation, invariably they will, through thousands of pages of regulations, create a top-heavy bureaucratic mass attempting to micromanage all aspects of an operation.  And, in most cases they fail.  Without decentralized decision making and execution, innovation and operational flexibility will be unachievable.

Centralized planning by the CEO, the planning staff and Board of Directors will prescribe policy and articulate achievable standards.

LAUNCH THIS OPERATION WITH A PHASED PLAN: In long-range strategic planning, phasing the operation is an imperative. simply put, at the front end you don’t know what you don’t know. As you move forward in time, key data will come to light and can then be properly assimilated into the total equation.

Phase 1, If this was a military operation this step would be called Shaping the Battlespace. For this program to succeed we need a strong, robust, multi-faceted Public Relations Campaign to generally enlighten everyone and to convince the general population that this is worth the effort, worth the investment in tax-payer money and will make our nation better and stronger than it can otherwise become. We must recognize that mandatory participation is potentially a tough sell.

The intent is to get a lot of traction with the White House, Congress, Governors, local officials, the general public and media. Also in phase 1, find a pro bono CEO for this program.  The first order of business will be to pull together a pro bono Board of Directors, composed of movers-and-shakers to find financing for a national Public Relations Campaign.

Phase 2, the CEO and his/her Board of Directors should push for Universal Service for America Non-Governmental Organization, NGO, funding to be included in the President’s budget and that it is looked on favorable by the Congress during the budget process. 

Phase 3, the first-year funding will be modest in that it may be prudent to begin the programs with a pilot program.

It would be very difficult to begin this operation with a full complement of young adult participants (about 4 million) on day one and a fully-staffed and trained national organization to run it.  Therefore, the first-year funding should accommodate a pilot program with about 1,000 volunteer participants in each state.

In Phase 3 the CEO will give the states a heads-up that, if passed by Congress, the law will require the states’ DMV facilities to be prepared to coordinate with the Selective Services System and register prospective attendees

Phase 4, the President signs the bill which will provide pilot-program funding for Universal Service for America as a Non-Governmental Organization.

Upon passage of the Universal Service for America Act the CEO will hire a staff to complete the phased plan.  There will be hundreds of issues to work on, for example: develop an organization chart; hire and train leaders and staff; logistics for housing and feeding attendees; initial registration to get the program started; develop a national database of those who register as a 17-year-old; develop a recruiting and training program for volunteers; liaise with state and local authorities; construct plans for Character Development; write a Code of Conduct; determine pay scales for permanent and temporary hires, etc.

The planning staff must also deal with the subject of discipline, a very delicate and important issue.  Inevitably, established rules and standards will be violated. The planners must define in detail who will have disciplinary authority and what the punishments will be for various categories of infractions.  Additionally, the headquarters staff must have a robust Inspector General Directorate to deal with complaints, potentially fraudulent activities, and any other activities that may call into question the integrity of the organization. 

Phase 5 will begin in June, bringing 18-year-old volunteers into the program in each state. 

VOLUNTEERS: Where do the volunteers come from to teach the Character Development curriculum?  There are about 70 million Baby Boomers currently retiring at a rate of about 10,000 per day and many are looking for something interesting, meaningful, and challenging to do in retirement.  Additionally, many local organizations, (country clubs, churches, charitable organizations, etc.) will be willing to sign up for a number of volunteer positions and keep them filled on a permanent basis.

COMMUNITY INTERACTION:  The nation needs to buy in to the idea of compulsory national service. They need to meet these young people, see them volunteering and working in teams for the betterment of the community. Therefore, a key to success will be the extent to which the participants can be temporarily joined up with businessmen and women, civil servants, first responders, and every part of what is going on in the community every day.   Arrange for participants to walk the beat with a law enforcement officer, spend a night in jail, see what goes on in the backroom of a supermarket, ride along when a fire truck is called out, spend some nights in a hospital emergency room and be a part of every community group doing volunteer work.  Participants need to be visible, see the good, the bad, and the ugly America and expand their horizons by seeing and doing new and different things every day. 

A logical and valuable extension of this interaction is to institute, in every community, a mentoring program wherein leaders in all walks of life can personally, one-on-one interact with one or more of the participants over the year and by extension, into the future.  Mentoring can be a life-changing event for both. 

VISION:  All planning should begin at the end with a clear vision of the end-state. This first step is a must-do because there is truth in the old saying, quote, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

The VISION for UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA is to set in motion, through positive training and mentoring of all the nation’s 18-year-old young adults, a process that will mitigate the problems associated with gangs, dropouts, illiteracy, obesity, race, culture and welfare. Over a period of years Universal Service for America will transform this country into a better, safer and more prosperous place for everyone. 

Vision is WHERE we need to go with this vital and important program.  

MISSION:  Once in place, there needs to be an overarching clear and brief statement defining what it is the organization is to focus on and accomplish every day.  For example, the U.S. Army’s mission is to prepare to fight and win the nation’s wars; clarity and brevity. 

The UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA MISSION is to annually engage all 18-year-old Americans in a program that will enhance their education, build character, strengthen their self-determination and set in motion a lifelong appreciation for community service, all while internalizing and learning to live in a culture of accountability, trust and respect. 

The mission is WHAT Universal Service for America needs to engage in each day.  

THE CEO:  The position should be filled by an American patriot who is an influential and respected voice on cultural, political, and educational issues; preferably someone who has held positions of great importance to America to include perhaps an Executive Branch department head for a previous president. He/she should be a familiar voice for traditional American values.

CONCLUSIONS: 

It is within the art of the possible for Universal Service for America to become a valuable national recruiting resource. The military can now be more focused on a single group of 18-year-old Americans.  Local businesses may find a beneficial fit with some of the participants and offer them positions at the end of their national service obligation.  Technical businesses may look at the training the participants are engaged in at the community colleges to find prospective hires. The federal and state civilian work forces are constantly in need of an infusion of young talent, etc. 

The percentage of the U.S. population which has benefited from compulsory service will grow every year and become transformational and drastically reduce the severity of the problems we are faced with today; gangs, dropouts, illiteracy, obesity, culture of bland and hate, race relations and welfare.

This campaign with its character development, daily emphasis on values and teamwork, participants living and working in a culture of accountability, trust and respect can ultimately change how a nation thinks and acts, from the bottom up, for generations to come. 

The power of the Character Development being discussed with every participant each day will result in the following:

As participants learn more about a life of accountability, they will be less likely to resort to hatred and blame.

Participants who are steeped in commitment, confidence, perseverance, punctuality and responsibility do not skip classes or work schedules, do not fall behind or drop out and are more likely to pursue additional education, get a job and stay off welfare. 

Participants who are deeply rooted in trust and respect will rally against bullying and are unlikely to become racially bigoted adults.  And they will believe, quote, “They will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  MLK

Participants who accept being compassionate, courteous, honorable, and demonstrate the courage of their convictions, will not return home to their street gangs.

Participants who accept honesty, morality and integrity as their guiding light are more likely to become life-long upstanding citizens.

Participants who understand, live and accept a life of selfless service are unlikely to become self-serving adults.

Participants who gain an understanding that there is a lot they don’t yet know and even part of what they believe might be incorrect, will have the quality of humility. 

Participants who gain an understanding of self-respect will recognize that they are now better than they used to be and can be counted on in times of temptation because they are morally dependable. 

With this value base, graduates of Universal Service for America are more likely to exercise good judgment and become good-to-great leaders.

Universal Service for America will be expensive but there is a huge difference between an expense and an investment. 

Amtrak is a good example of a tax-payer funded government-run expense.  Fifty-one years ago, President Nixon signed the Rail Passenger Service Act creating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, later known as Amtrak, to take over intercity passenger rail obligations. Amtrak has lost money every year requiring a federal subsidy.  In 2019 it was $1.9 billion in the red. As if that is not enough, the government Covid relief packages in 2020 provided $2 billion dollars to Amtrak.  Additionally, the infrastructure bill passed by the Senate in August, 2021 contains $66 billion for intercity rail. That, Mr. and Mrs. taxpayer, is a government expense.

Universal Service for America, on the other hand, should not be categorized as a government expense; it is an investment in the future of our great nation.  Yes, it will be expensive but the pay-back is incalculable.  Go back and review the problems associated with young Americans today and then ask yourself if those problems could be even partially eliminated, would it be worth the investment?  The offset for U.S.A. program operational costs will be more Americans employed and paying taxes and fewer on welfare and in jail.

Additional take-aways from this subparagraph on expense vs. investment: 1) The government must never take over the program and attempt to run it.  If that happens the program will fail from being ineffective, inefficient and lacking in ingenuity; and 2) The Congress must never be allowed to insert its partisan influence into the program’s curriculum via the annual appropriation to the NGO. If they do, the program’s integrity will be lost. 

A PARTING THOUGHT: As we consider this legislation there is value in looking at the Israeli program of mandatory military service for all men and women. Four things that stand out are:

One, mandatory military service has become a rite of passage for all Israeli citizens.  The U.S.A.  Program can become that for all Americans.

Two, the army serves as Israel’s melting pot. Participants from every background are blended together for better understanding, appreciation and tolerance of each other.  The U.S.A. Program can do that for the United States.

Three, women have equal status. and equal responsibilities.  The U.S.A. Program can promote and advance that in our nation.

Four, service in Israel’s defense force is viewed as a precursor to the nation’s economy which has grown faster than any other developed country in the past 25 years. The parallel is that these young people learn how to solve problems, work with diverse groups of people and build networks. The U.S.A. Program can do that in the United States and easily offset the program’s investment dollars.

What comes to mind is a photo I recently saw of five young women, probably in their late teens, casually dressed, smiling and obviously having a delightful conversation as young ladies are want to do.  It is the type of photo that might have been taken in any other nation but not this photo; these were Israeli women because each had with them an M16 military rifle. They were holding the weapons casually, safely, expertly and with obvious confidence as if it was a purse or backpack.  What come to mind was that these young adults were probably already steeped in accountability (for themselves, defense of family, teammates and country), citizenship, commitment, courage of convictions, confidence, honesty, honor, integrity, morality, perseverance, punctuality, respect, responsibility, self-respect, selfless service and trust.

Israelis consider the end result of their mandatory service to be national pride, skill and gender equality.  It can do the same in the United States.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; we should not be too proud to copy something that works for others. 

KEYS TO SUCCESS:  A critical step in every long-range strategic planning effort is to STOP about now, take a deep breath and consider that when the overall Concept of Operations has been thought through and at least has touched on most of necessary questions (who-what-when-where-why-and-how?) then ask, what are the keys to success?  Or stated another way, what can cause this to fail? The keys to success for Universal Service for America are:

A Public Relations Campaign that is nation-wide and very robust.

Resist becoming fully engaged until we have had the opportunity to learn from a pilot program of at least one year.  Learn to walk before we try to run.

Character Development is the pillar that will make Universal Service for America last for a lifetime.  In the daily routine, the period devoted to Character Development must be priority number one.

Everything in the program must contribute to and point toward creating a lasting culture of accountability, respect and trust. 

The program will fail if it becomes government-run. It will fail if it becomes a political football from administration to administration and/or from one Congress to another. Character development cannot ever be viewed as a partisan issue.

BOTTOM LINE: 

If goodness, and hence greatness, is to be regained for this country, it will be accomplished one person at a time through character development and a culture shift from blame and hate to accountability, trust and respect.

Just for a moment imagine, across this great nation, millions of young adults in classrooms with their hands on their hearts, looking at the American flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and then sitting down with a dedicated patriot volunteer to discuss character and values. The result will be transformational for generations to come.

Why should we do this?  To paraphrase a French political philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, who came to America in the 1820s to study our nation; he concluded in his book, Democracy in America, that America is great because it is good; when it ceases to be good it will cease to be great.  There needs to be a time and a place wherein all Americans can contemplate goodness and thereby plan to live a more fulfilling and productive life by being all they can be. That time is now and that place will be as a participant in Universal Service for America.  Goodness doesn’t just happen; it is a work in progress. Our intent has to be focused on refreshing and perpetuating America’s goodness.

A dedicated Republican, a great patriot, and publisher of conservative issues every other day throughout the year to tens of thousands of subscribers has reviewed this proposed legislation and commented as follows, quote, “I personally consider this proposal of such importance, I am devoting this entire newsletter to its circulation. Short of a Devine Intervention, I can think of nothing that would more substantially improve life in our United States of America than implementation of Universal Service for America at the earliest possible moment.”

Are there any questions?

OK, see you tomorrow for another look at Republican Party transformational legislation coming out of the House during the 118^th Congress.

Author’s note:  This concept of ops can be found in FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, chapter 7. The next proposed Speaker presentation to America outlining the legislative agenda for the 118^th Congress will soon appear entitled, WHAT’S NEXT REPUBLICANS? (Part 10).

The Republican Party cannot afford to miss an opportunity to pass this transformational program of universal service.   Again, I ask, if you have contact with any movers-and-shakers in Washington, please provide them a copy of this plan.  Thank you.  Marv

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

The intent of this series is to answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?”  His point being, at the time he said it, the Republican Party does not stand for anything. 

The intent for the Republicans in the House should be to move quickly with a legislative agenda that will highlight numerous national issues that can be/should be solved during the 118^th Congress.  This will also begin framing the Republican Platform for the 2024 presidential campaign.

 Part 1, of this series, how to fix education and race relations and a plan for immigration reform.

Part 2, election reform.

Part 3, a plan for fixing a dysfunctional Congress. 

Part 4, taking on the bloated bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending by the Executive Branch.

Part 5, terms of office and term limits.

Part 6, campaign finance reform.

Part 7, cleaning up the primary election mess.

Part 8, (herewith) the IRS and tax reform.

Presumptive Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy speaking:

On 16 August 2022, President Biden signed into law a $740 billion bill that focused on climate, health care and tax increases and was called the Inflation Reduction Act and oh-by-the-way provides an extra $800 million to the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents.

This is another one of the mega-bills, 750 pages, that no one read before they voted on it.  If the $80 billion for 87,000 new IRS agents had been a stand-alone bill, it would have had to pass muster in Congressional committees in both the House and the Senate with expert testimony and We-The-People would have known what was coming, been informed of the pros and cons and been able to dial in to our Congressional Delegations. But no, that makes too much sense.  Now it’s the law and I have not heard anyone who believes there is anything positive about adding 87,000 agents to the current IRS force of about 90,000.  “As government expands, liberty contracts.” President Reagan said. So, what can we do about it?

First, let’s take a look at how the IRS is doing these days?  The Wall Street Journal and various other open sources recently shed some light on their capabilities or lack thereof:  Here is a summary of some reports from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: 

Last year the IRS answered only about 10% of taxpayer calls.

There is a backlog of 17 million unprocessed tax returns.

$19 billion, 28%, of earned-income tax credit payments in FY 21, were “improper.”

67,000 claims, $15.6 billion, for low-income housing tax credit from 2015 to 2019, quote, “lacked or did not match supporting documentation due to reporting errors.”

A May 2022, audit found that 26%, $1.9 billion, of its American opportunity tax credits for education expenses were improper in FY 2021.

27%, $541 million, of its net premium tax credits (Obamacare) were improper in FY 2019

May, 2022 audit,13%, $5.2 billion of its enhanced child tax credit payments were improper.

September, 2020, the IRS issued 89,338 notices to taxpayers insisting that balances were owed even though the taxes were not actually due.

February, 2022, audit found the IRS department responsible for ensuring retirement plan tax compliance suffered a 23% decline in the quality of its examinations from 2018 to 2020,

In 2010 the Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act to identify wealthy Americans using undisclosed foreign accounts. The intent was to raise $9 billion in revenue by 2020. An April 2022 audit showed the IRS has spent $574 million to implement the law and had found only $14 million in revenue. Let me reread those last two sentences that deal with intent and results. The intent was to raise $9 billion in revenue by 2020. An April 2022 audit showed the IRS has spent $574 million to implement the law and had found only $14 million in revenue. Amazing!

In 2010 the IRS began a program to examine returns from “high income” individuals (those with incomes of over $200,000). But from FY 2015-2017, 73% of the targeted returns were for those earning less than $200,000. Again, intent and results mismatch, aka gross mismanagement with little or no leader oversight.

In the past seven months the Treasury Inspector General has issued damaging reports on IRS mismanagement of its partial-payment program for delinquent taxpayers, for its auditing of partnerships and its struggle to handle internal employee misconduct.

In those twelve short pieces of information, we see a clear picture of an organization in chaos with low standards, ingrained mismanagement and little or no viable leadership. In spite of this reality, Congressional Democrats and the president believe it is a good idea to spend $80 billion, that we don’t have, to double the size and weaponize one of the most inept, inefficient departments in the government.

Have we even properly defined the IRS problem?

The most pathetic issue here is that the IRS’s day-to-day performance standards stem from a big-government, over-regulated, bloated bureaucracy. Is the IRS’s problem that they are short 87,000 employees? Of course not, but too many in Congress and the president continue to believe that every problem can be solved by throwing thousands of bureaucrats and billions of dollars at it.

What the Republicans need to do is define the base problem first.  Then, and only then, develop a specific plan to fix the problem. 

Here is the problem:

According to the Public Law 117-154 (23 June, 2022), the U.S. Tax Code is 6,871 pages. But when you include the federal tax regulations and the official tax guidance, it rises to approximately 75,000 pages.  That’s the problem.

How do we fix it? First, how not to fix it.  Do not appoint a special commission to fix it by working their way through 75,000 pages adding, subtracting and rewording.  Doing so will probably result in an even worse 80,000-page document. 

Instead of trying to fix it, hit the delete button, all 75,000 pages, and start over with a clean sheet of paper.  Start out with a long-range strategic planning maxim; that is, begin at the end.  In this case define the dual end state factors first. After that, plan for the specific issues: how much tax, what types of tax, how are they divided up among taxpayers and the IRS role in administering it.

Dual end-states:  First is the alignment of overall annual government budgeted requirements with accurately projected revenue. The second is based on the assumption that few, if any, Americans can accurately articulate what the current Tax Code is about.  What we need to end up with is a new Tax Code that can be read in a few minutes and understood by every taxpayer in America.  Both are within the art of the possible as follows:  

New Tax Code, CHAPTER ONE, INDIVIDUAL GROSS INCOME:

All taxes will be based on individual gross income. So. the first thing is to define exactly what constitutes individual gross income, how it is derived, how it is reported and how it can be verified.  Also begin with a threat of very harsh penalties for anyone who is caught hiding or misstating their gross income. Fear of going to jail is a powerful incentive.

CHAPTER TWO, TAX DEDUCTIONS:

The current 75,000 pages of tax Code/regulations undoubtedly contains hundreds of possible deductions. Therein lies a big part of the problem and requires thousands of IRS employees to deal with it. 

Under this plan there is one and only one authorized deduction from personal gross income; charitable contributions. But the charities have to be real and operate under a strict set of standards in order to qualify.

The Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation’s tax return, 2014, provides a perfect example of a charity that would not qualify as a tax deduction by donors.

In 2014 the Clinton Charitable Foundation total revenue, in rounded numbers, was $178 million. From that, actual grants to charity amounted to about $5 million; three per cent.  Most of the contributions went for exorbitant salaries and expensive travel.

This Tax Code chapter must include standards for a charity to qualify for a tax deduction. For example, grants to charity must be at least 60% (or whatever we determine the correct number should be) of charitable revenue for an organization to qualify.

Every charitable organization would be required to submit income and expenditures annually to the IRS and be subject to audits.  For each tax year the IRS would publish the list of qualifying charitable organizations to be cross-checked with individuals’ tax return deductions. This will guarantee every doner that their money is actually going to a worthy cause.  If the charity can’t pass the smell test and make the annual IRS list, they will probably soon be out of business, which is a good thing.

 CHAPTER THREE, CORPORATE TAX:

Let’s begin this discussion with a fact: corporations do not pay taxes, people pay taxes.  The so-called corporate tax is, to the corporation, just another cost of producing a product.  The tax is no different than the cost of raw materials, salaries, marketing, etc.  The money that a corporation pays to the government in taxes, has already been passed on to workers in lower wages and to customers in a higher priced product. 

So, let’s do away with all that nonsense and the hundreds of millions of dollars that businesses spend on accountants and lawyers to compute their tax returns.

Under this plan, there will be no corporate taxes.  There is another way, a more sensible way, to turn corporate income into government tax revenue.

Let’s say for example that General Motors has a very good year.  As a result, they might raise wages and salaries, hire a few hundred new employees, build a new plant (future wages/salaries), pay more and higher bonuses to their top performers, and pay higher dividends to stockholders.  All of those corporate actions will translate into higher individual gross personal income for thousands of tax payers. Bottom line, the government gets their revenue, the corporations’ products become more competitive in the global marketplace and the gross domestic product goes up. 

Therefore, under this new tax plan corporate tax gets explained in a sentence, no corporate tax, instead of thousands of pages of tax regulations. And, perhaps more importantly, corporate tax will no longer be a political yoyo under a tax-and-spend administration. 

Taking taxes off the table for businesses and corporations has many positive residual effects.  As an example, in 2017 President Trump cut corporate taxes from 35% (highest in the world) to 21%.  Economists predicted one of the positive delayed impacts would actually be increased tax revenue rather thnt reduced federal income. They were correct because cutting corporate taxes resulted in higher wages, hiring went up, businesses expanded and generally the entire economy grew and pushed government revenue to the highest levels in history.

Taking corporate taxes to zero will cause an economic revolution: overseas manufacturing will come back to the U.S., we will be less dependent on China, wages will go up, unemployment down, those who can work will be forced off the welfare rolls, GDP will increase and overall government revenue will shoot up.

CHAPTER 4, CAPITAL GAINS TAX:

Capital Gains Tax is currently a separate tax that is levied on profits an investor realizes when he or she sells a capital asset for a price that is higher than the purchase price.

As of 2021, the long-term capital gains tax is typically either 0%, 15% or 20% depending upon your tax bracket.

Under the new Tax Code there will no longer be a separate tax on capital gains.  If you invest $10,000 and can prove it and then sell it for $15,000 at a later date, that is simply a $5,000 addition to that year’s gross income that may or may not put you in a higher tax bracket. 

Capital losses occur when an investment is sold for less than its original purchase price. Under the new Tax Code this will have zero bearing on your taxes.  Why should you get a tax break for making a bad decision and losing money?

This simplified formula for Capital Gains Taxes also does away with the Biden-proposed nonsense of taxing Capital Gains on investments that have not yet been sold.

CHAPTER 5, DEATH TAX, aka Estate or Inheritance Tax: 

Death taxes are the most morally corrupt initiative in our government.  Therefore, in the new Tax Code there will be no such thing as a Death/Estate/Inheritance Tax.

Death Tax is a tax on your right, even though you are now deceased, to transfer everything you own at the time of your death.

The Death Tax habitually hits rural America especially hard.  Farmers and ranchers generally fall into an economic category of being, land rich and cash poor.  Agricultural land has almost always increased in value over time; that’s the good news….land rich.  The problem with agri-business is that there is little or no consistency in profitability from year to year.  Perhaps last year’s harvest put a pile of money in the bank. But this year a 30-minute violent hail storm cut your soybean yield by 50%. In Southeast U.S., a sustained drought cut the 2022 cotton harvest by about 50%.  A year ago, no farmers were anticipating that the anhydrous ammonia fertilizer they would need in 2022 would go up by $86,000 for 1000 acres of crop…..cash poor

So, Mom and Dad pass away and the two kids now own the farm; a farm they love, where they labored as youngsters and where their children might someday want to farm.  But both middle-income kids have a house mortgage, car payments, some student debt and a couple overdue credit card payments.  No way they can dig up a few hundred thousand dollars to pay the Death Tax. They have no choice; they have to sell.  Some of you are thinking, but there are estate value limits before the death tax becomes applicable.  Yes, you are correct but you are also missing the larger issue; we need to get this monster off the books forever.

This is unamerican government-greed insanity.  Under this proposed Tax Code, you inherit it, you own it; period.  Do what you want with it, not what the damned government tells you what you must do. 

CHAPTER SIX, TAX BRACKETS:

The concept of operations for this plan is to divide personal gross income into many brackets ranging from zero to billions of dollars. That could end up to be a lot of pages depending on how small each bracket is.  The good news is that the individual taxpayer only has to refer to one of those pages; the page that lists the tax rate for their particular gross income.

The brackets would be progressive but also careful to not disincentivize a taxpayer.  True story:  An acquaintance of mine is a successful upper-level executive in France.  She told me that upon getting a promotion resulting in greater responsibility and longer working hours, the salary increase put her into a new/higher tax bracket; the result, her net take-home pay actually was less than before the promotion.

THE TAX CODE MODEL will look something like this and I will use some numbers just to illustrate the intent:

First, define the gross income brackets. For example,

-Zero to $100,000 in increments of 25K.

-100K to one million, increments of 100K.

-One mil to 10 mil, increments of one million.

-10 mil to 20 mil, increments of two million.

-20 mil to 100 mil, increments of 10 million.

-100 to one billion, increments of 100 million.

-Remaining increments of $500 million each.

That’s about 45 brackets but the number is immaterial to the Tax Code model; it could be more or less refined than that.

Secondly, determine the number of taxpayers in each bracket.  After the first year under the new Tax Code that will be easier to do and should be updated every year.

Third, begin refining the first model with a working end state number; that is a budget of, for example $4 trillion. Up to $25K gross income the tax is zero.  Then beginning at $25K gross income for example, 7.28% for the second bracket, $25K to $50K. Then adjust the rate upward by one half % for each bracket.  Using the above brackets, the tax rate for $1 million gross income would be 12.78% etc. and the rate for $1 billion gross income would be 28,78%.

So, the president submits his budget to Congress the first Monday in February. February-September Congress works to publish a final Congressional Budget Resolution by 30 September.  Let’s say the budget is $4.436 trillion beginning the fiscal year on 1 October. 

The Tax Code model would work with these key pieces of input:

An agreed-to permanent set of brackets (my estimate is about 45); permanently in the legislation.

An agreed-to permanent tax progression percent from each bracket to the next resulting in a permanent tax rate for each bracket. My example is one half per cent progression.

An annually calculated number of taxpayers in each bracket.

The Congressional resolution budget number as of September each year.

The first run of the model would spit out a projected revenue number.  If it falls short of the budget, simply increase, by perhaps a tenth of a percent, the tax rate for each bracket. The point being within a few minutes of adjustments the projected revenue from taxpayers’ gross income will equal the budget request.

Today taxation is a complete mystery to almost every taxpayer. We all live with the April surprise when our tax accountant tells us how much we owe or will get as a refund.  No more April surprises.  Now a family can sit down at the kitchen table, calculate what they expect their gross income to be and from that know exactly what their tax burden will be and proceed to work up their family budget

Monthly withholding taxes should result in a consistent flow of revenue to the government and rarely should there be an April surprise tax due or a refund.  That should reduce the IRS personnel requirement by tens of thousands.

Currently it is safe to say no one understands everything contained in those 75,000 pages of tax law, tax regulations, and legal findings over the decades.  Now every citizen will be capable of knowing it all.

Remember when President Trump reduced taxes for everyone and the Democrats all called it a tax cut for the wealthy; those days would be over with complete tax obligation transparency.

BACK TO THE IRS:

The problems with the IRS is not that they  don’t want to do a good job.  It is also not that they are short 87,000 employees.  The problem is the ridiculous 75,000-page tax system.  Fix the system, transform America. Perhaps the IRS, under this system may only need a few thousand folks; certainly not the current 90,000 or the requirement for 87,000 new hires.

BALANCED BUDGET:

Fixing the IRS should not be a stand-alone effort.  It can also present an opportunity to pass a Balanced-Budget Amendment.  In just the past fourteen years the national debt has increased from $10 to $31 trillion and there is no relief in sight. The total transparency of tax and revenue with this new tax plan will provide the opportunity to fix our current deficit spending mania. 

Congress, whatever party is in power, has clearly demonstrated they do not have the discipline to control spending.  We do not have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem.  A Balanced-Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would constrain total government spending to be less than or equal to total tax collections. Given Congress’ predilections towards annual deficit spending, it is the only way we can get our national debt under control. 

CONCLUSIONS: 

This discussion began with the assertion that President Biden’s new law which provides an extra $80 billion to the IRS to hire 87,000 new IRS agents is beyond ridiculous and completely unnecessary. 

But, in a larger sense, the new law is illustrative of the way our government does business; one nit-pick at a time and by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at it. They appear unable and/or unwilling to look at the larger picture and approach problem-solving by fixing the system in its entirety.

Also, alignment of the government’s calendar (fiscal-year budgeting and calendar-year taxing) would be a helpful step. 

One of the realities of this legislation will be that the lobbyists representing lawyers and accountants will go crazy and do everything possible to shoot it down. But this is not about lawyers and accountants, this is about the greater good for every U.S. citizen in particular and the welfare of the nation as a whole.    

BOTTOM LINE:

This proposed legislation is potentially one of today’s most needed and most important transformations. It is so common sense and non-political in nature, that I am counting on a great deal of support from my Democrat colleagues.

If our great nation is to survive, We-The-People have to speak up and be heard on these pressing national issues. We-The-People can dream and plan for the eventuality that perhaps a future tax return could simply consist of a post card that is enroute to an informed, competent, responsive, non-weaponized IRS. 

Are there any questions?

OK, see you tomorrow for another look at Republican Party transformational legislation coming out of the House during the 118^th Congress.

Author’s note: The next proposed Speaker presentation to America outlining the legislative agenda for the 118^th Congress will soon appear entitled, WHAT’S NEXT REPUBLICANS? (Part 9).

This proposal is a potential game changer for America and will be readily accepted by most citizens.  The Republican Party cannot afford to miss this opportunity.   Again, I ask, if you have contact with any movers-and-shakers in Washington, please provide them a copy of this plan.  Thank you.  Marv

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

The intent of this series is to answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?”  His point being, at the time he said it, the Republican Party does not stand for anything. 

The intent for the Republicans in the House should be to move quickly with a legislative agenda that will highlight a lot of national issues that can be/should be solved during the 118^th Congress.  This will also begin framing the Republican Platform for the 2024 presidential campaign.

 Part 1, of this series, how to fix education and race relations and a plan for immigration reform.

Part 2, election reform.

Part 3, a plan for fixing a dysfunctional Congress. 

Part 4, taking on the bloated bureaucracy and uncontrolled spending by the Executive Branch.

Part 5, terms of office and term limits.

Part 6, campaign finance reform.

Here is Part 7, cleaning up the primary election mess.

Again, let me remind you that none of this proposed legislation in Parts one through seven will require any taxpayer money.   

Presumptive Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy speaking: 

The process for the election-year primaries is a mess. Delegates selected by primary, or by caucus; open primaries, closed primaries; proportional convention delegates, winner-take-all delegates; committed delegates, uncommitted delegates; delegates that are pledged, those that are unpledged; Republican rules, Democrat rules; at-large delegates, congressional district delegates; superdelegates in the Democrat party, Republican pledged delegates either bound or unbound.

 It is our intent to quickly produce a bill to streamline the primary election season with the underpinnings of one person one vote and that vote counts all the way to the party convention.

The existing 435 districts will provide the basis for equal representation of convention delegates.  There will be four delegates per congressional district totaling 1740. 

Limit the primary season:  There will be no “campaigning” before January 1^st of the election year.  Included in the law will be a very detailed, unambiguous discussion of what constitutes “campaigning”.  Appoint a panel of retired federal judges to rule on complaints of campaigning before January 1^st.  If found guilty, the penalty will be that the candidate’s name will be removed from the ballot in the state in which the infraction occurred. 

No caucuses:  Take a look inside the Iowa caucuses.  On a cold evening 25 neighbors in a small community will crowd into someone’s living room and listen to speeches for several hours then vote by raising their hand. Given the option to actually go to the polls that day, perhaps 250 folks from that same community might have actually cast a secret vote.  

Four voting dates:  There will be four regional primary election dates with about fifty campaigning days preceding each. The actual dates will be the Saturday and Sunday closest to February 19^th, April 9^th, May 29^th and July 17^th.  Voting will take place over a weekend to maximize voter participation. 

Each region will consist of a group of contiguous states with a total number of Congressional districts closest to 109; approximately one fourth of the 435 representatives. For example, the northeast region will include the thirteen states in the northeast bordered on the southern edge by Virginia and West Virginia. 

The order in which the regions will hold their primaries will be based on a drawing held July 1^st, six months prior to the commencement of campaigning on January 1^st.

Open primaries:  All political parties will hold their elections on the same dates and all primaries will be open.  the voter will go to a polling station, show their voter ID card and request a party ballot. 

Committed delegates:  Every delegate must be chosen by the voters and every delegate will be pledged to a contestant. Superdelegates are either members of the Democratic National Committee, elected officials, and/or distinguished party leaders. They are neither elected by Democrat primary voters nor are they required to pledge their support to a specific presidential candidate; an undemocratic, unamerican process.

Proportionality vs winner-take-all: The delegates allocated to a particular candidate in every state will be proportional to that candidate’s share of the total votes cast. A winner-take-all process does not allow many citizens’ vote to count at the convention. 

In or out:  Candidates will not be allowed to suspend their campaign and retain their delegates.  A candidate is either in or out.  If a candidate quits prior to the last regional primary, the delegates they have gained will be reallocated proportionally. For example:  A state has 120 delegates; candidate A got 50% of the vote (60 delegates), candidate B 30% (36 delegates) and candidate C 20% (24 delegates).  Subsequently, candidate C drops out.  Candidate C’s 24 delegates will be proportionally allocated to candidates A and B based on the per cent of the total vote they received. 

Convention rules:  The usual procedure is for convention rules to be determined at a meeting just as the parties’ conventions begin. The rules for each party will be written and finalized by December 31^st before campaigning begins on January 1^st.

Any questions?

OK, see you all tomorrow for some more House legislations in the 118^th Congress.

Author’s note: The next proposed Speaker presentation to America outlining the legislative agenda for the 118^th Congress will soon appear entitled, WHAT’S NEXT REPUBLICANS? (Part 8 Tax Reform).

Republicans have to educate the American people that the numerous and significant nation-wide problems can be fixed and Republicans will lead the process. Therefore, again I ask, if you have contact with any movers-and-shakers in Washington, please provide them a copy of this plan.  Thank you.  Marv

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, and a new book May 2022, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com