Month: November 2024

Warning to readers, this is long.  I’m into sales and my intent is to convince you that it is possible to solve three of America’s current crises, culture, education and race relations without spending any taxpayer dollars.  If you are interested, please read on. 

As a New York Times bestselling author, David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard and understood.” Brooks’ latest book, How to Know a Person is a who/what/when/where/why and how in-depth look at us, we-the-people.

Let’s begin with a list of sad statistics pulled from a short chapter entitled, An Epidemic of Blindness.  He concluded, “We live in an environment in which political animosities, technological dehumanization and social breakdown undermine connection, strain friendships, erase intimacy and foster distrust. Here are some statistics that led him to that conclusion:

• Between 1999 and 2019 suicide rates increased 33%.
• Between 2009 and 2019 the percentage of teens who reported persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness rose from 26% to 37%.  By 2021 it had shot up to 44%.
• The percentage of Americans who said they have no close friends, quadrupled between 1990 and 2020.
• 54% of Americans reported that no one knows them well.
• 36% of Americans reported that they feel lonely almost all of the time including 61% of young adults and 51% of young mothers.
• The General Social Survey asked Americans to rate their happiness levels. Between 1990 and 2018 the share of Americans who put themselves in the lowest happiness category increased by more than 50%.
• Sadness, lack of recognition and loneliness turn into bitterness, which can lead on to meanness which has caused a marked increase in hate crimes.
• This social breakdown manifests itself as a crisis of distrust. Two generations ago, roughly 60% of Americans said that most people can be trusted; by 2014, only 30.3% did.
• Ultimately, the sadness and dehumanization pervading society has led to violence, both emotional and physical. Sadness, dehumanization and Loneliness too often, in reflection, tend to define school shooters which was almost unheard of before 1999.
• Brooks goes on to introduce the phrase “moral formation” which is about three simple practical things. 

First, it is about helping people learn how to restrain their selfishness and incline their heart to care more about others.

Second, it’s about helping people find a purpose, so their life has stability, direction, and meaning. 

Third, moral formation is about teaching the basic social and emotional skills so one can be kind and considerate to the people around them. 

Those three items are especially applicable to this article because those words are a part of what I am going to outline as a long-range strategic concept of operations to fix, “the epidemic of blindness” existing throughout our country today.

Brooks’ research suggests that earlier in our history, education did focus on moral formation. Educators thought it was their primary job to turn out people of character.  But, in mid-20^th century the focus on moral formation began to fall away.  By the 1960s deliberate moral education was in full-scale retreat.

In a sense, American culture became demoralized by the 1990s usage of morality-related words had plummeted; “bravery” down 66%, “gratitude” down 49%, “humbleness” down 52%.  In a 2018 poll only 7% said helping other people gave them meaning in life. 

Recent generations of Americans have not been taught the skills they need in order to see, understand, and respect other people.

Thank you, David Brooks, for those insights. Now to the question, how are we going to turn all this around? There are going to be three issues in play in this concept of operations, culture, education and race relations. Why?  Because the solution to any one of the three critical issues, coincidently can be the solution to the other two. Three for the price of one.  And by the way, if done properly, the price to the taxpayers will be $0.00.

Since 5 November, change is in the air.  There are growing expectations across the country that President Trump has a mandate to fix some of our most serious problems and culture, education and race relations are certainly three of the most critical. Let’s get on with the fix.

First define the three problems, culture/education/race relations.

CULTURE IS A POWERFUL, PERVASIVE FORCE

There is a culture associated with every organization no matter how large or small. A two-person team as well as the largest of organizations will over time develop a culture that can be defined. Culture is an organization’s personality; caring, hateful, fast, energetic, visionary, risk-taking, vengeful, selfless, selfish, accommodating, respectful, unethical and on and an. I believe the pervasive culture in the United States of America can be generally classified as A Culture of Hate and Blame. That is not where we want to be or should be and certainly not a way to move forward.

EDUCATION IS IN A PATHETIC STATE AND GETTING WORSE

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in FY 2023, 614,000 students dropped out of high school, 3,411 per school day, and statistically become a life-time drain and strain on society. Others are allowed to slip through the system and graduate from high school but are actually functionally illiterate.

For decades the National Assessment of Education Progress, has been routinely testing hundreds of thousands of students in grades 4, 8 and 12. The results are called The Nation’s Report Card. Reading and math proficiency percentages provide a short-hand look at where we were in 2019, pre-Covid, scoring stats. This is about proficiency or the lack thereof. Proficiency is, “demonstration of some competency over challenging subject matter.”

Math: 4^th grade 67% NOT proficient, 8^th grade 71% NOT proficient, 12^th grade 63% NOT proficient.

Reading: 4^th grade 68% NOT proficient, 8^th grade 66% NOT proficient, 12^th grade 69% NOT proficient.

Statistics are available for all other subjects and scoring is generally worse than math and reading. President Trump is correct, education needs reform. But…..

Top-down programs do not work: The federal government has a horrible record in trying to run anything, especially education.  Since the Federal Government established the Department of Education in 1979, we have seen one failed program after another as each succeeding administration tries to “fix” education from the top down with hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of bureaucrats and regulations.

Our proficiency levels and world rankings in education tell us we are stuck in a place we do not want to be.

RACE RELATIONS CAN AND MUST BE IMPROVED

There is no definitive measure of where we are with respect to race relations, but events continue to tell us it is not anywhere near good enough.

Ground truth, babies of all races are not born bigoted, disrespecting or hateful.  While growing up they learn it. They learn it at home, in school, on the playground and on the street.  We simply have to change what children learn.

NO QUICK FIX

To fix all three of these issues, we need to become comfortable thinking in terms of generations to institutionalize this concept of operations and get where we all have the opportunity to be all we can be every day. 

Today, we adults, for he most part, are a lost cause. The solution will only come if we change what our youngsters learn, how they think, what they believe in and how they behave.

The good news is this concept of operations does not need federal or state masses of bureaucrats with their reems of regulations and the equally good news is, it is free. 

CAMPAIGN HOME ROOM, THE WAY FORWARD

First, who will be involved in some way in this campaign?

-130,000 K-12 public and private schools

-50 million K-12 students

-180 million adults with a school-age child

-4.5 million teachers

-2 million Home Room volunteers, (more on this later)

-Over 200,000 Superintendents, Principles and Education Board members

That’s over 80% of adults in America involved in some way with this campaign.

The plan is for 50 million kids to be in a Home Room class at 0800 every school day for about 20 minutes for 13 school-years with volunteer instructors. They will discuss values and character.

President-elect Trump campaigned on fixing education in America.  Here sir, is a program for you.

This concept paper is laid out as a national campaign with President Trump leading.  But if that does not happen, the concept as written can also be applicable for action by any individual state led by the Governor. In the absence of any Federal or State sponsorship, Campaign Home Room can be picked up by any county or city Board of Education and executed.  At whatever level this program is activated, it can be successful, it will make a positive difference and it will be transformative for the communities involved. 

Structure each Home Room with a cross section of the class population.  For example, visualize a school that has 75 new kindergarten students entering school in August, twenty-five kids per class.  Populate each Home Room with students from each of the three classes.  During the following 13 years, some youngsters will move away and some new ones will move in; but for the most part that Home Room group will stay together until graduation.  That is part of the power of the Home Room concept.

This Concept of Operations to fix the above discussed problems is not a guessing game.  The strength of this concept is that there are existing successful models we can lean on and learn from. 

Youngsters who are committed to youth organizations such as Scouting, First Tee, Boys and Girls Clubs avoid joining gangs or becoming bigoted because they have developed a positive value base.  They have learned accountability; they trust each other and respect authority.  But these great programs only touch a fraction of the kids.  We have to teach values to every youngster in the United States for generations to come. 

EXECUTION, THE HOME ROOM CURRICULUM

The first 20-30 minutes of every school day in every school, K-12, will be Home Room. The subject matter 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.

That is, teach and talk about values.  Call it the Character Curriculum. There will need to be three versions of the curriculum; elementary K-5, middle school 6-8 and high school 9-12.  Out of this will come an overpowering culture of ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPECT AND TRUST.

In many large schools a student may not even know all of their “classmates” but they sure will know their Home Room mates.  They will get to know them like brothers and sisters.  They will have deep feelings and respect for their Home Room mates.  Over time Home Rooms will have names, mascots, tee-shirts, a website, competition with other Home Rooms, an unshakable identity, peer pressure and peer support.  “I have your back” will become an unspoken pledge from each to all.  The Home Room will become powerful, effective and it is free.  It is a game changer.

In this day and age of peer pressure to join a gang the Home Room can, from kindergarten on, provide an alternative.  For every student, their Home Room can become their “gang” throughout their elementary and secondary education years.  Every student in the United States will have a small group they can identify with and turn to for peer support.

Bullying has always been a problem for youngsters and seemingly more so today with the availability of social media.  Home Room will bring bullying to its knees in two different ways.    First of all, every student will now know that their Home Room gang has their back.  The students will look after each other and protect one another.  Secondly, one of the most powerful subjects in the Home Room Character Curriculum is respect.

By their very nature, bullies do not respect others or authority.   With respect imprinted on the soul of every youngster and emphasized day after day, year after year throughout their student careers, it is doubtful that bullying will even be a mentionable problem in the future. 

Truancy is an enormous problem in this country and is the super highway to dropping out of school.  With the bond built among a group of Home Room kids over the years it will not be easy to bring one’s self to skip school.  Accountability will become a powerful way of life for every student. 

Home Room does not require funding.  Personnel on the educational payroll will not lead or teach Home Room.  It will be done by volunteers and we will need a lot of them.  If the average size Home Room is 25 students, we will have about 2 million Home Room classes in session every school day. 

Just imagine the impact Campaign Home Room can have with 50 million youngsters standing with their hand over their heart reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and then participating in a substantive discussion about one of the subjects in the Character Curriculum every school day and then adjourning to their class rooms to live/be/do/demonstrate those values.  How powerful is that?

TWO MILLION VOLUNTEERS

How do we find and train 2 million volunteers?  The essence of this campaign is decentralized execution.  Each individual school Principal will be responsible for finding a handful of volunteers and that should not be a problem.  For example, there are about 70 million Baby Boomers retiring at a rate of about 10,000 per day and many are looking for something interesting, meaningful, and challenging to do in retirement. 

Tap in to local organizations and churches for help: Kiwanis, Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce, VFW, American Legion, AARP, Shriners, Country Clubs, etc.  Get them to sponsor an entire school and provide all the Home Room instructors.  Easy to do and retirees bring a wealth of knowledge and experience for the mentoring of youngsters. 

Additionally, there are almost two million retired military men and women across the country.  They all have three things in common: they are proven leaders, they are teachers and they have spent their professional lives in a fully integrated and value-based organization in which they operated daily immersed in a culture of ACCOUNTABILITY, TRUST AND RESPECT.  They have the perfect skill set to administer the Home Room Character Curriculum. 

True story. A few years ago, I was invited by the paster of a large church in my community to speak at the Wednesday church supper gathering of about 75 folks; Twenty-minute presentation about the concept of Campaign Home Room and 10 minutes of Q and A.  About a week later the paster called to thank me. He also reported that there was a lot of positive talk around the church about Home Room. He told me that if I could get Campaign Home Room started in our local school system, he already lined up about 300 volunteer instructors from the church. Yes, communities with step forward.

Teachers and administrators should be seated in the back of the room observing the Home Room instruction/discussion.  Why?  The power of the program is that the students will take the values from the Home Room to the classroom if they are prompted all day to do so. 

FIRST TEE, PROOF OF CONCEPT

We can begin Campaign Home Room with a load of information and results from actual character training by reviewing what First Tee has accomplished over the past 27 years.

1997, then-PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem was joined in New York City’s Central Park by representatives from the leading golf organizations, US Golf Association officials and President George H. W. Bush to announce the launch of First Tee.  

First Tee mission is, “to impact the lives of young people by providing educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices through the game of golf.”

First Tee is a national non-profit organization devoted to teaching the “Nine Core Values” (respect, honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment) plus Nine Healthy Habits and introduction to the game of golf.

Since 1997, First Tee has grown into a preeminent youth development organization with 150 chapters with programs delivered at 1,400 golf courses, 10,000 schools and 1,700 youth centers in all 50 states.

Golf is a sport enjoyed for a life-time by over 100 million players around the world.  One unique aspect of golf as a sport is that while there are lots of rules, there are no referees. Every player declares their own infractions.  Honesty, accountability and sportsmanship are in play all the time and great practical application for youngsters.

DOES CHARACTER TRAINING WORK?

The desire to understand how character training impacts young people prompted First Tee to sanction a study by an outside group of highly qualified researchers.  It began in 2003 with a snapshot look at the program with the following results:

Communications skills…..74% positive, 24% no change, 2% negative

Confidence.……………………76% positive, 22% no change, 2% negative

Responsibility…………………74% positive, 24% no change, 2% negative

School grades………….….….52% positive, 44% no change, 4% negative

Social skills………………………66% positive, 30% no change, 4% negative

With these impressive results First Tee then sanctioned a four-year study, 2005-2008 with the following findings:

• 73% of The First Tee participants were retained in the program from year one to year four of the research.  This retention rate is impressive given the average dropout rate per year is about 50% in other youth organizations. 
• Year one:  Character training impacts the lives of students quickly.  During year one the participants declared there was a positive life skill transfer to school work (100%), a job (35%), friends (60%), activities (30%), family (85%) and sports (70%). 
• Year two:  First Tee participants were compared to youth in after-school activities without a life skills curriculum. The First Tee youth scored higher than the comparison group on use of general life skills including goal-setting, taking initiative and managing their emotions, as well as on most measures of transferring life skills and demonstrating positive character traits. These differences between First Tee youth and the comparison group were statistically significant.

• Year three:  73% reported high confidence in their ability to do well academically.

• Year four:  In each of the four years of the study, 100% of First Tee participants identified school as a setting in which the character training transferred positively.

The best feedback I can report to you is what has been relayed to me in conversations with teachers while working with First Tee CEO and the national staff as well as with a local chapter.  While every teacher was initially skeptical about using 20 minutes of valuable school time each day, every teacher reported that to their surprise and delight within just a few weeks their students changed; became more attentive, more polite, more cooperative and more accountable.  Music to my ears.

This nation does not need a pilot program to test character training, we just need to execute.

TEMPLATE BEST PRACTICES:  

This concept of operations provides the basics for Home Room operations.  But we all know that after implementation there will be a plethora of new good ideas.  Home Rooms will have names, T-shirts, perhaps a website and competition with other Home Rooms.  Community service should become a traditional Home Room activity for high school students. Some schools will reward outstanding high school seniors by having them partner with the Home Room volunteers to teach and discuss the Character Curriculum.  Some schools will use the best and brightest high school students to tutor struggling students whose parents are unable or incapable of tutoring their children.  The list goes on and on and is only limited by imagination. 

At some point, perhaps in the sixth grade, a Home Room student will suggest to her mates that they challenge the other Home Rooms to a grade-point-average competition.  At that point that school just reached the Promised Land. 

Innovation has been the lifeblood of this nation since its inception.  Whatever Home Room function is found to work in one community should be templated and shared.  Each Governor should have a Campaign Home Room website set up to publish innovative ideas and best practices.

MAXIMUM CENTRALIZED PLANNING, MAXIMUM DECENTRALIZED EXECUTION: 

Since the establishment of the federal Department of Education in 1979 there has been program after program forced down to the states and counties by the federal government.  Additionally, every presidential candidate since then has campaigned on a pledge to improve education.  It has not and will not happen as long as the process is so politicized and frequently changed.  Policy driven, top-down solutions overseen by masses of bureaucrats has not worked in the past and will not work going forward.

For Campaign Home Room, centralized planning is by the President and Governors and those they have chosen to assist with implementing phase 1 of the campaign.  Maximum decentralized execution is from the County/City Board of Education Chairperson on down through the Superintendent to the school Principals.  There is no requirement for thick pamphlets dictating rules, regulations and reporting requirements; this concept of operations is the basic plan. 

Maximum centralized planning with maximum centralized regulation is a loser, especially for education.  Maximum centralized planning, maximum decentralized execution is a proven model because it pushes the decision-making down closest to the point of execution. 

With decentralized execution of Campaign Home Room, the local county/city populace will soon come to understand that the accountable officers, the Superintendent and the School Principals, are right there in their community and are not some nameless, faceless bureaucrat in Washington DC. 

The Superintendent and the local school Principal can be approached, talked to and debated.  What happens next is that the Superintendents who are weak leaders and the principals who can’t plan will be replaced by leaders who can and will deliver high school graduates in greater numbers and those who do graduate will have the cognitive skills necessary to be productive citizens.

DEFINING CAMPAIGN FAILURE 

The four potential enemies of this campaign are politics, the not-invented-here crowd, bureaucratic oversight and impatience.

Politics:  If this campaign becomes a Democrat vs Republican political pawn, it will crumble and fail.  Therefore, each succeeding President and Governor, in turn, must see the long-range value of this program and keep it on track without federal or state funding. 

Not-invented-here: In every campaign, there are those persons and organizations that believe if something was not their idea then it most certainly cannot be of much value.  Defeat the not-invented-here crowd with fast action and wide-spread support for the campaign.

Bureaucratic oversight:  This is not a program that needs a mass of federal or state regulations, rules and reporting requirements.  Keep Campaign Home Room in its simplest form and execute from the County/City Board of Education level down.  

Impatience:  The campaign will certainly yield improvement in the first two or three years but it must be understood that, generally speaking, this is a generational campaign.   After one complete cycle of K-12 the results, the transforming of this nation, will be astounding. 

PRESIDENT TRUMP CAN LAUNCH CAMPAIGN HOME ROOM IN THREE PHASES:

Phase 1 is the centralized planning phase at the federal level January through spring 2025 and at the state level on through August, 2025.

The senior leader of any large organization will spend a great deal of their time building consensus for strategic campaigns.  It will be critical for President Trump to do so as early as possible.  Governors, minority leaders, educators and legislators must all get briefed and brought on board during early months for phase 1.

After the Governors meet with President Trump, they should become active by laying out the decentralized plan for leaders in every school district to take the ball and run with it.    

Phase 2 begins August, 2025 and is one year long.  During this phase the County/City Boards of Education, Superintendents and school Principals will undertake the detailed decentralized planning actions outlined in this Concept of Operations. 

Phase 3 begins decentralized execution of Campaign Home Room, August 2026, hopefully in every school in America.

ACCOUNTABLE LEADERS: 

The President will be overall lead.  His principal responsibility is to shape the environment by bringing all the Governors on board and building consensus among all the constituencies involved throughout the nation. 

The Secretary of Education, if the department remains active, will advocate nationally for the program.  

Governors will embrace the program, build consensus among Superintendents, educators, minority leaders, legislators and then quickly decentralize to the local Boards of Education.

The State Board of Education Chairperson and the State Superintendent of Schools will actively advocate for state-wide buy-in of Campaign Home Room.

The local Boards of Education, Superintendents and Principals are the accountable leaders for Phase 3, detailed decentralized planning.

STRATEGIC PLANNING: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY AND HOW:

Who: the entire “education organization”; students, parents, teachers, administrators and volunteers; all 236 million of them.

What: dramatically improve education and race relations while transforming America’s culture.

When: begin now and look long-range into the future; a generational campaign.

Where: in all 130,000 private and public K-12 schools in America.

Why: because our culture is broken, we must learn to be “good” again and

eliminate the existing “epidemic of blindness.”

How: character education led by volunteers with every student, every school, every school day, K-12.

 CONCLUSIONS:

This campaign can change the nation, from the bottom up, for generations to come. Conversely, it cannot be successful from a top-down program. There are historical precedents in the US military and character-building organizations such as First Tee that prove the validity of the concept.  

Home Room concept will be successful.  We do not need a trial balloon; we just need to execute. 

BOTTOM LINE

The power of the Character Curriculum being discussed with every student in every Home Room every day for 13 years, K-12, results in the following:

Accountable students do not resort to blame.

Students who are steeped in commitment, confidence, perseverance, punctuality and responsibilitydo not skip school, fall behind or drop out.

Students who are deeply rooted in trust and respect will strike down bullying and are unlikely to become racially bigoted adults.  And they will believe the famous words of Martin Luther King, “……they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” 

Students who are compassionate, courteous, honorable, good citizens and demonstrate the courage of their convictions do not join street gangs.

Students who have accepted honesty, morality and integrity as their guiding light will likely be life-long upstanding citizens.

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

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

Students who understand self-respect recognize that they are now better than they used to be and can be counted on in times of temptation because they are morally strong and dependable. 

With this value base, students across the nation are more likely to exercise good judgment and become great leaders.

Home Room will make every youngster a better student and a better person. Keeping up becomes important, dropping out becomes unthinkable.

Any organization that wants to be successful will have underpinnings that includes some or all of the following”

• Take the long view.
• Decentralized decision making and execution.
• Focused accountability at the point of execution.
• Racial integration that emanates from a value base of trust and respect.
• A transformational culture of accountability, trust and respect.

FINAL THOUGHTS

EDUCATION: What has been done for the past 35 years (hundreds of billions of dollars spent on federal and state programs overseen be thousands of bureaucrats administering thousands of pages of rules, regulations and reporting requirements) has not worked.  Education in the U.S. is a national disgrace.  This can and must be changed. 

CULTURE:  On 31 August, 2015 black and white protesters marched outside the Minnesota State Fair Grounds.  Their chant, “Black lives matter, pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.”  At other locations, “What do we want?  Dead Cops; when do we want them? Now.” This is not what America has been about for most of its history, but it is where we are today, part of the “epidemic of blindness.”

DISSENT:  This is a voluntary program at the local level and there will be some dissent. Teachers’ unions will say there isn’t enough time. Some will argue the volunteers will not be qualified. A few will believe character education is a waste of time.  They will all be proven wrong and when the value added begins to spread across the nation, parents will demand their School Board sign on to the program. 

The shortest list in this country is a list of youngsters who spent ten years as a Boy/Girl Scout or with First Tee and then dropped out of school.  They didn’t stay in school because they learned to tie a knot, pitch a tent or grip a golf club, they stayed in school and excelled because of the character training that is now part of their being and guides them every day, everywhere, doing everything. 

Just for a moment imagine as the sun passes over every school house across this country, in sequence 130 million K-12 youngsters in 2 million Home Room classes will put their hand on their heart, look at the Stars and Stripes, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and settle in for a discussion of some elements of the Character Curriculum. Campaign Home Room is within the art of the possible and “we the people”, not we the government, can make it happen and transform America forever.

“We the people”, those first three important words of the U.S. Constitution, we the people have to start over.   We have to begin with the kids; little kids. And “we the people” have to work it hard for a generation.  If goodness, and hence greatness, is to be regained for this country, it will be accomplished one youngster at a time through character education.

REALITY IN ACTION. Character education is valid; however, that does not mean all 50 states or all of the county/city boards of education are going to sign up for Campaign Home Room the first year.  Initially, some Governors will see this as a Republican issue, politicize it and decline to participate.  Initially, some Boards of Education will shy away from change out of fear or ignorance, and they will opt out.  Initially, some Principals, because they are incompetent, will make a token effort, fail and declare the concept invalid. 

But education is an issue near and dear to the hearts of most Americans and conversations among family and friends across county and state lines frequently contain questions like: “how are the kids doing in school?”  “How are the schools in your area?”  “Do the kids have good teachers?”

These conversations will often be between families whose children are beginning each school day with a dose of character education and those who are not.  Character education has an immediate, definable, positive impact on children; particularly on their school work, attitude, perseverance, attention, courtesy, accountability.

The “have” parents will begin to use the word, “transformational” when describing their kids’ educational environment. The “have not” parents will begin to ask, “why don’t our schools have character education?”  And when they do begin to ask the hard questions, they will not be addressing some nameless bureaucrat in Washington, they will look to the Principal, the Superintendent, the Education Board members or the Governor they voted for. Social media will move character education through the nation’s conscience like a raging wild fire. 

The positive changes in student behavior resulting directly from character education will manifest themselves early and profoundly.  Within a couple years after phase three of Campaign Home Room is initiated, the bottom-up pressure will mount and, God willing the whole country will get on board. “In God we trust.”

While war rages on in the Middle East and Ukraine, the American people have just approved a mandate for change in the U.S.; all kinds of change: immigration, crime, military, the economy, out of control government oversight and regulation, judicial lawfare, foreign affairs, it’s a long list.

The world is currently speculating about what President Trump will do about the two current combat zones, Ukraine and the Middle East.

While we are leaning forward as a nation, hopeful, optimistic, open to change and expecting strong leadership, why not add world peace to the to-do list?  But, you ask, is it even possible to look for world peace before the Israeli and Ukraine wars are over?  One approach would be to look beyond the two current conflicts and watch them just dissolve as part of a larger success story on peace.

The key question is, how can we institutionalize a faster, better, more organized, more aggressive, and all-inclusive plan for preemptive actions that would preclude a Gaza/Lebanon/Yemen or Ukraine from ever happening again?

A suggestion is to have President Trump, in a major speech on Foreign Affairs to the American people and world leaders, describe in some detail a concept of operations for a new world order that is free from conflict; world peace forever.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PROPOSED ADDRESS TO THE NATION WITHIN A WEEK AFTER ASSUMING OFFICE ON 20 JANUARY 2025.

President Trump speaking:

My fellow Americans and our friends abroad who may be listening in. Right now, my staff is busy forwarding copies of these remarks to the leaders of the other 192 countries that are member states of the United Nations and the two countries that are non-member observer states. I want them to see my proposal directly  not after the remarks have been laundered through the media.  

Seeking the means to achieve world peace is not a new subject; some background is appropriate to set the stage for a way forward. Let’s take a quick look back over the past hundred years at previous endeavors.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS:

With technically-advanced machine guns, tanks, an aerial view of the battle space 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 in January 1920 with 48 member countries. Our U.S. Congress failed to ratify membership in the League.  Between 1920 and World War II there were numerous opportunities to act, but the organization 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 a potential aggressor.

THE UNITED NATIONS:

In 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 postwar world order.  The next step was the Atlantic Conference in August 1941, at which U.S. President Roosevelt and U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill laid out a more detailed form of the alliance called The Atlantic Charter. The final step was the Yalta Conference, in February 1945 when Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed on the establishment of the United Nations as well as the structure of the UN’s Security Council.   

Despite having endured for 79 years, generally speaking, the UN is a weak-intentioned, expensive (2024 internal budget of $3.9 billion) bureaucratic mass that is involved in everything and accomplishes very little.  Case in point, did the UN respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine 22 February, 2022?  Yes, on March 3rd they voted overwhelmingly for a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces. That was it, no actions taken.

The UN is an established international organization perfectly positioned to be a greater force for the greater good of 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.  Change is possible.

THE UN TODAY: 

The overarching mission of the UN is, I quote, to ensure international peace and security. But they are incapable of doing so and that is primarily because of how the Security Council functions.

THE SECURITY COUNCIL:

By way of explanation, the Security Council consists of five permanent members, the U.S., China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom and ten elected UN 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 principal function of the Security Council is also, and I quote, to ensure international peace and security. Additionally, and this is important, the subset authority allows the Council to: 

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

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

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

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

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

And six, take military action against an aggressor. Those six represent a very comprehensive list of positive actions, especially the sixth and final authority to take military action against an aggressor. Unfortunately, none of these routinely happen.  

The problem is, the Security Council rarely acts decisively because of their decision-making process. All Security Council decisions have to be approved by at least 9 of the 15 members.  The problem is that any one, it just takes one, of the five permanent members, U.S. Russia, China, France or the UK can veto a proposal. One veto by a permanent member and the issue, no matter how important, becomes a dead issue with no action. Reality is that China and Russia can and do routinely prevent the Security Council from acting out, and I quote again, to ensure international peace and security.

 The bottom line is that the UN has never been the answer to world peace and never will be. We need a new and different way forward.

WHAT IS THE ONE-WORD FORMULA THAT CAN MAKE WORLD PEACE A REALITY?

That word is deterrence. That is, fear, in the minds of a potential aggressor, of rapid and decisive retaliation by a superior force.

My intent tonight is to outline a concept of operation that can potentially involve support from most of the 195 nations of the world to join a new organization outside and separate from the United Nations. My proposal is to call the organization, United for World Peace and the military contingent would be called the International Deterrence Force, IDF. This is not to be confused with Israel’s IDF which stands for Israeli Defense Force. The IDF I will now describe to you has absolutely nothing to do with defense. It is all about deterrence based on a very large and capable offensive force. The organization would look like this:

First, establish two small headquarters, one in the European area and one in Asia.

Secondly, there will be an elected civilian Secretary General serving one six-year term.

Third, there will be an experienced 4-star military IDF Commander and an equally qualified 4-star Vice IDF Commander; one stationed in each of the two IDF headquarters.

Finally, the fully operational International Deterrence Force I will describe to you in a moment that is forward deployed in the member nations.

The United for World Peace mission statement could be pulled directly from the UN Charter. That is to ensure international peace and security by:

One, investigating any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction.

Two, recommending methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of a settlement.

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

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

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

And, six, most importantly, be ready every day to rapidly deploy a tailored, highly trained offensive IDF elements against an aggressor.

That’s the framework I am recommending to the United for World Peace organization. At this time let me strongly emphasize that this is not a U.S. organization and the IDF will not be a U.S. force.  Everything will belong to the member nations.

Given this framework, let me give you my view of the initial internal workings. 

Importantly, this will not resemble the over 120,000 UN employee operation. In my view the United for World Peace organization will be a lot closer to 12 hundred in size than 120,000.

My Vice President, J.D. Vance, will select twelve counterpart Vice Presidents from member nations to act as a selection committee.  Member nations will, if they wish, forward the name of a candidate for Secretary General along with a detailed resume. Those will be studied by VP Vance’s Committee and three candidates will be selected to compete in an election, one vote per member nation.  The winner will become the first Secretary General and immediately begin serving a six-year term. 

A similar action will simultaneously take place to select the IDF Commander and Vice Commander for four-year terms.  

Every member nation must agree to contribute to the IDF elements from their existing force structure that can be deployed anywhere in the world within seven days.  Every nation will contribute according to its capabilities. Let me give you a sense of how that can work with some examples.

The U.S. has the greatest capability in the world for worldwide force-projection.  For example, the world watched in awe in 1990 as the U.S. deployed an overwhelming force to the Gulf War in support of a coalition of 38 nations which rapidly defeated the Iraqi forces; more specifics on that later. One U.S. contribution to the IDF could be our entire air-cargo fleet to fly directly to various countries and transport their IDF contributions directly to the targeted area.   Another critical U.S. contribution could be our fleet of about 99 aerial refueling tankers. 

Countries with few or no actual military resources (only 136 nations have a defense budget) could provide field hospitals, portable field surgical units with doctors and nurses, aircraft maintenance capabilities, truck drivers, border patrol personnel, police, 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 air, land and sea combat forces will 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.

Two of the member nations, preferably among those without an existing military budget, will fully support the two IDF military headquarters’ needs. 

Imagine a world-wide International Defense Force organization with little or no annual operating budget.  I hope you are getting the impression that this entire concept of operations for continuous world peace can be unique, simple, highly trained, focused, rapidly deployable to anywhere there is a need while also being very austere. By contrast the 2024 UN budget was $3.9 billion.

One uniting factor is that the United for World Peace organization will borrow NATO’s Article 5 Concept.  That is, an attack on one member is an attack against all members. Let’s pause right here to define what we mean by the word attack. That would be direct or indirect interaction with ground, air or sea systems as well as the use of non-military systems such as cyber-attacks on member nation civilian and/or military targets.

The first order of business for the IDF military commanders will be to conceptualize what a series of aggressor contingencies might look like. Additionally get current inventories of all the members’ military manpower, organizational structure, weapons systems, etc.  From all that raw data the planners will tailor, on paper, a draft lean-and-mean, full-time, rapidly deployable force that can take down the aggressor nation or organization. That tailored force, in total may come from several member nations and form up in the conflict area of operations. Always overestimate the IDF requirements.  That is, always plan to take a machine gun to a knife fight. Every deploying force should plan to win with overwhelming force and win fast.

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 contributions.

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

All contributing nations will exist in a state of one of four different IDF Readiness Conditions, IDF-REDCON.

IDF-REDCON 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.

IDF-REDCON 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.

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

IDF-REDCON 4:  Deployment of all designated elements to the target area and preparing to initiate an overwhelming counteroffensive.

SOME OF MY CONCLUSIONS FROM ALL OF THIS DETAIL.

What does all of this detail come down to?  The answer is deterrence. The objective of having a highly recognizable superior force that can rapidly deploy anywhere at any time can become so overwhelming for potential aggressors to think about that the IDF will never have to deploy and world peace will become the order of every day.  That is the meaning and objective of deterrence.

My second conclusion is that this IDF concept can annually save trillions of dollars in member nations’ defense spending.  How can that happen? There are currently multiple nations that have the full range of heavy, light and special forces along with the entire array of specialty services such as engineers, signal, intelligence, air defense, artillery, helicopters, air forces, ships and on and on. Under the IDF organization a nation only has to sustain and train the particular forces they are to deliver to the deployable force. For example, one nation may train and deploy only air defense systems.

SOME POTENTIAL SCENARIOS FOR THE IDF

An attack on small-country “A” in Africa by a larger neighboring country “B” appears imminent.  The IDF Commander determines that inserting a couple of infantry battalions on the ground could possibly sufficiently deter the attack. But, using the intent to always have an overwhelming advantage, the commander will deploy a full infantry brigade along with combat supporting forces and tactical air support. Result, Country “B” packs up and goes home. Deterrence is 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 IDF-REDCON 3. That is, all personnel and equipment for the designated units will move to assembly areas.  Deployment aircraft will move to their first pick-up airfields. 

China’s Achilles heel is imported oil, about 11 million barrels per day.  Inform China that an overwhelming IDF naval force is in route to the South China Sea to create an impenetrable blockade of 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.   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 are forbidden. Deterrence in action in support of world peace. 

During the fall months of 2021, Russia moved a massive army to the Ukraine border giving every indication they would attack which they eventually did on 22 February, 2022.  Had the IDF been in place and an IDF-REDCON 3 announced to the world, there is every reason to believe the Russian invasion would never have taken place.  Again, deterrence in action, keeping the peace.

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 sponsor of terrorist organizations as they routinely finance, train, equip and lead terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Sunnis  

The UN is incapable of deterring any of these example scenarios.

Why would countries sign up to be an IDF member? Here is a starter list of ten answers as to why a United for World Peace organization is needed now. 

One, Middle East countries and Israel are fearful of the hegemony intentions of a nuclear-equipped Iran but powerless individually to stop it.

Two, South Korea and Japan are very nervous about North Korea’s aggressive offensive missile and nuclear programs but powerless to do anything about it.

Three, Taiwan is fearful of a China invasion. 

Four, Europe is fearful of more Russian aggression and use of nuclear weapons.

Five, former Soviet Republics are fearful that they may be next on Putin’s list.

Six, the Baltic countries and Finland are fearful of Russia.

Seven, India is in a constant state of unrest over China’s border incursions.

Eight, African border disputes are a recurring concern. 

Nine, Iran’s support for terrorist activities threatens the world.

Ten, aggressors who would use cyberattacks to inflict humanitarian and economic disaster on another nation is a growing threat. 

During the first one thousand days of the Ukrainian border conflict there have been an estimated 1 to 1.5 million combined dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and civilians. 

Another reason to join other nations as a member in the International Deterrence Force is that there will no longer be a reason to belong to other alliances such as NATO or to maintain ready forces in support of bilateral treaties for mutual protection. 

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 2024 was $6.1 billion.  With active worldwide deterrence and an overwhelming rapidly-deployable counter-offensive force trained and ready, peace will be the standard world-wide day-to-day condition.

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

About now more than a few of you are still skeptical about the feasibility of putting together a coalition of nations and then being capable of moving a large combat force possibly thousands of miles into combat. I am here to tell you this proposal is certainly within the art of the possible. Here is why I am convinced and I believe you will be also when you listen to this brief after-action-report.

OPERATIONS DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM

Many of you will recall that on 2,3 and 4 August 1990 Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces attacked, defeated and occupied their neighbor Kuwait with what Saddam Hussein used to brag was the Mother of all Armies.

Pay particular attention to this time-line and the size and number of operational elements that deployed from a dead start on 2 August:

3 August, U.S. President Bush announced that U.S. navy ships had deployed to the Persian Gulf.

7 August, President Bush began a military operation named Desert Shield which formed a 35-nation coalition to defend Saudi Arabia and ultimately liberate Kuwait.

7 August, 15,000 U.S. troops, 32 navy destroyers, 100 helicopters and a contingent of fighter planes arrived in Saudi Arabia.

8 August, the U.S. 18^th Airborne Corps began forward deployment to Saudi Aribia, 7,500 miles away.  

14 September UK and France announce the deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia.

15 January, 1991, the UN deadline for Iraqi forces to be withdrawn from Kuwait expired.

17 January, the coalition operation Desert Shield transitioned to Desert Storm with the following results:

Coalition: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces.

Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries, 425,000 of which were from the United States. I’m going to round off the numbers for ease in comprehension.

Coalition air component size: 2,500 combat aircraft, 1,800 of which were American.

Coalition airlift: 509,000 passengers and 594,000 tons of cargo carried.

Coalition sorties flown: 100,000 plus.

Aerial refueling: 15,400 sorties dispensed 110 million gallons of fuel.

Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,000.

Number of smart bombs dropped: 9,300.

30mm depleted uranium rounds fired by A-10 manned aircraft (tank-killers): 782,000.

Duration of air campaign before the ground invasion: 39 days.

Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,300 oh hand.

Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups on station: 6.

Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26.

Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000 plus.

U.S. combat related deaths: 147

Iraqi military deaths: 100,000 plus.

Ground war duration: 100 hours.

Yes, a highly effective multiple-nation coalition can be organized in days.  The U.S. has done it once and we can show our IDF allies how to do it again.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

A final IDF deterrent posture will not be a threat, it will be a promise.  

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

I want to emphasize one more time, this initiative will not be a United States-led organization. It will belong to the member nations.  I do not want to hear the media reporting tomorrow that the United States is trying to become the leader of the world.

There is no intent with this initiative to do away with the United Nations.  They play an important role in humanitarian relief around the world. But we also must accept the fact that they are powerless when it comes to their mission of ensuring international peace and security.

A personal note to the leaders of the world’s other 194 nations.  My staff will be contacting your offices beginning tomorrow morning to inquire if you would like to personally discuss this initiative with me in more detail.

Time is of the essence.  The Middle East could erupt into World War Three at any moment and the Ukraine conflict could escalate into a nuclear war.

My vision is that if the first 100 of you, the leaders of the world’s nations, can come forward quickly and sign up, at least tentatively, as members of the United for World Peace organization, we could within a few weeks have the 3 members of the Command Group (Secretary General, IDF Commander and Vice Commander) on board with at least a skeleton staff.  Soon thereafter the IDF Commander could be assessing potential member military contributions, airfields, logistics, headquarters locations, etc. and drafting deployment plans.

The point being that there is potentially so much to be gained and so little risk or expense involved, that it should not be a difficult decision. Try to think about a year from now when some unstable national leader or terrorist organization decides to launch an invasion of all or some portion of your nation.  Immediately, on day one, the score card on the battlefield will be 100 against 1 and the aggressor will ultimately loose decisively and quickly.

This concept need not be a multi-year plan for activation.  We can make it happen now and insure, as time goes forward, that we gain additional United for World Pease members, improve our capability, agility and deployment times and thereby institutionalize our commitment to world peace forever. 

Thank you.

End of President Trump’s presentation on foreign affairs to the world’s leaders and the American people.

Author: MARVIN L. COVAULT, LT GEN US ARMY retired

Email: MandDcovault@yahoo.com

 THEN, 2020: Equal opportunity for all was the goal in a merit driven culture. Military readiness was high, and deterrence was active.

NOW, 2021-2024:  On 25 June 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order that: “Establishes a government-wide initiative to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in all parts of the Federal workforce”.

 That Executive Order charged, “all agencies with assessing the current state of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility with their workforces, and developing strategic plans to eliminate any barriers to success faced by underserved employees”.

Biden also ordered agencies to, “seek opportunities to establish or elevate Chief Diversity Officers within their organizations.”

That order, of course included the Department of Defense.  The DoD is a different type of organization by design and necessity. They take in a cross-section of Americans every day and indoctrinate them into a culture of accountability, trust and respect.  They are trained to kill and blow things up and defeat any and all enemies and do it without losing their moral compass. It’s a tall order and not easy to accomplish.

It begins the day an American raises his/her hand and takes a solemn oath. From that moment forward they live and breathe in a powerful and pervasive culture that provides every single service member equal opportunity and freedom to not only succeed but to excel as an individual and team member; to be all they can be every day. And the entire organization understands that their individual advancement is based on merit, not some artificial senseless identity-group pronouncement that, “it’s-your-turn.”

DIVERSITY?  President Truman’s Executive Order Integrated the Armed Forces, 26 July 1948. The U.S. military has led the nation over the past 76 years in creating a cohesive organization from a cross-section of all Americans. 

INCLUSION? The U.S. military has been and is today the master of the culture of acknowledging, embracing, supporting and accepting those of all racial, sexual, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.  All a soldier needs to know is that those to his right and left have his back. He/she could care less about their heritage.

EQUITY? Equity is pure poison to the military ethos. All military training is based on standards for every military individual and team task; how to, how many, how fast, how far, how accurate.  Every day some soldier somewhere will perform a task to a new, higher, better, faster standard and thereby set the precedent for all future training of that task. Not everyone can or is expected to meet that new standard but it is there for everyone to see and try.  To have a military built around the concept of equity (“ensure everyone can achieve the same outcome”) serves only to dumb-down the entire organization to the point that it becomes mediocre from top to bottom. 

That is what has happened to our military since June 2021 and remarkably degraded our capabilities. Why is that important?

DETERRENCE

Our strength for decades has provided deterrence. NATO is a great example with consistent combat readiness and strong leadership since 1945.  Soviet Union/Russia has been held inside their borders with the exception of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 under Obama/Biden and most recently the Ukraine invasion which Biden initially described as OK if it is, “a minor incursion.”  Deterrence means our potential enemies believe we can take them on and defeat them; it keeps them at bay. With degraded strength and deterrence today, our enemies no longer fear us, our allies no longer trust us and neither respect the current Commander in Chief. From that our vulnerability, especially over the next two months, is potentially at the highest point in our history.

WITHOUT DETERRENCE THERE WILL BE SERIOUS NATIONAL VULNERABILITY, FOR EXAMPLE TODAY…..

THE GRID. One example of our vulnerability is our power grid. It consists of about 55,000 power stations like the ones in your community. If a specified nine of the 55,000, yes just nine, of them were taken down simultaneously by some sophisticated hackers from the China/Russia/Iran/North Korea cabal, the entire country could be without power indefinitely.  An estimated 9 of 10, about 300 million, Americans would die within the first year.

EMP. A second vulnerability is an electromagnetic pulse.  EMP can emanate from a high-altitude nuclear detonation that does not blow things up or harm people.  What it can do is fry all the electronics over a very large area of the U.S. Or, with simultaneous blasts, can cover the entire country. Every vehicle would immediately stop in place and never move again plus all of our daily electronic items to include the power grid would be nonoperational.  

A fascinating book published in 2009, One Second After by William Forstchen, describes a post-EPM all-to-realistic environment that would be similar to passing us back in time about 300 years. It is a very scary possibility that we now live with in today’s world.  EMP survival is nearly impossible.  Hello China/Russia/North Korea/and soon-to-be nuclear-capable Iran. Just place some submarines with nuclear-capable missiles off the coasts of the U.S. and in minutes it could all be over for this nation. We are that vulnerable today.

A few days ago, President Biden reportedly gave permission for Ukraine to use our long-range tactical missiles capable of attacking deep into Russian territory. Putin has already warned Biden that doing so, “would mean NATO and Russia are at war.”  So, there we are.  To make it worse, the missiles, reportedly, will be used against the ten thousand cannon-fodder North Korean soldiers recently deployed to the Ukraine border in support of Russia.

A note about North Korea and Kim Jong Un.  Kim began a very aggressive program a decade ago to advance his nuclear weapons and intercontinental missile delivery capability.  When he verbally implied he could use them to attack the U.S., President Trump went to Asia three timed to meet personally with Kim.  There is no public record of their private conversations but after the third visit, Kim shut down his entire nuke/missile programs.  Of course, after Biden’s inauguration Kim was full-bore back advancing his nuclear and missile programs while his people starved.  Not a word from the Biden White House.

Kim is a certifiable nut case who wants to be recognized on the world stage and has joined the China/Russia/Iran cabal with his sophisticated toys of destruction.  It does not take much imagination to conger up a scenario wherein China/Russia would/could, use their lacky Kim to take out our power grid thereby taking the U.S. off the world stage and giving China/Russia/Iran free reign throughout the world.

Back to President Trump’s meeting on 21 January.

WHAT SHOULD PRESIDENT TRUMP DO?

Do first things first.  On 21 January 2025, there should be a classified, not publicly announced, meeting at any location led by the president and attended by all (44) of the 4-star generals and admirals in the U.S. military plus the 3-star Commandants of the Service Academies.

This is his message directly from the Commander in Chief to every single senior military leader.  He could tell them….

The Executive Order issued to you from President Biden June, 2021 on the subject of DEI is as of this moment null-and-void. 

Upon return to your headquarters, you will each issue direct orders to every element in you command that DEI as a subject, as operational guidance is hereby immediately discontinued in its entirety. There will never again be any DEI training, lectures or indoctrination by any one at any time anywhere in your command. 

Take care of the DEI people. Reassign them to their previous military occupational specialties or provide training for them to be reclassified.  DEI is not their fault; they must not be punished for following the previous Commander in Chief’s directives.

Today is Tuesday; this will all be completed before the end of this week.  No press release is required or desired.  This is internal business.

Is there anyone in this room who does not understand my intent or understand exactly what you personally are to accomplish? This task does not get delegated to anyone else, you do it. 

Are there any questions or comments from anyone on this subject?

If you cannot do this, you may resign this week. Rebuilding our deterrent strength is too important to our national security to accommodate your personal views or desires on the subject of DEI.

CONCLUSIONS

It is possible that every officer attending the meeting on 21 January was nominated by Biden for their current position and therefore have previously convinced the Congressional confirmation hearing committee that they were 100% on board with DEI.

Based on their previous Congressional testimony, the attendees may have an intellectual conflict going forward. However, I predict that most of the chain of command will comply with the Commander in Chief’s directives. But it will take time, perhaps years, to completely drain the DEI swamp and replace it with a strong, overarching, deeply engrained, operational culture of accountability, trust and respect up and down the entire chain of command.

BOTTOM LINE

Our country cannot afford to sacrifice our national security for a half-baked operational culture that cannot successfully function inside any military organization.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

In 2020 when the pandemic was beating up every aspect of our society the Congress concocted a 5,593-page-Bill monstrosity for Covid-19 relief, The Cares Act.  Of course, it passed; nearly everyone could use a little relief from Covid and the taxpayers were stuck with the Bill, all $1.8 trillion dollars.  But here is the pathetic part; under the guise of helping Americans through the pandemic, members of Congress took the opportunity to pork-up the Bill with dozens, if not hundreds, of earmarked funding directives that had absolutely nothing to do with Covid or Covid relief.  Here is a sampling:

$10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan,

$300 million for fisheries,

$100 million for NASA,

$300 million to Endowment for the Arts,

$300 million to Endowment for the Humanities,

$300 million to Public Broadcasting,

$500 million for Museums and Libraries, 

$720 million to Social Security Administration,

$315 million to the State Department,

$90 million to the Peace Corp,

$492 million to National Railroad Passenger Corp,

$526 million grant to Amtrak. 

$4.7 Billion in foreign aid to nine countries.

The takeaway from this example is that under different circumstances, each of these expenditures could have/should have seen the light of day in one or more congressional committees where expert witnesses would have testified to the pros and cons of passing the funding.

The second takeaway is that the Covid Relief Act was not a one-off occurrence. Producing multi-thousand-page Bills has become the norm. No one who votes for them has actually read them and therefore do not know what they are voting for or against. Should we be borrowing money for earmarks that have never been exposed to public scrutiny? If viewed separately by the American taxpayers, would they all pass the smell test?  Absolutely not.

For years politicians have been emphasizing the need for infrastructure spending.  So, in 2021 Congress finally passed, in a bipartisan vote, a $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill which, by the way, is also funding universal pre-K, child care, enhanced child tax credit, earned income tax credit, Affordable Care Act subsidies, Medicaid expansion, medical hearing benefits, affordable housing, Pell grants, children’s nutrition, immigration, state and local tax deductions, etc. etc. etc.  Only about 25% of the expenditures actually exist for real infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports. What happened to the remaining $900 Billion?

We just finished a fiscal year with $1.8 trillion in deficit spending, up from $1.7 trillion in 2023.

Those opening paragraphs are just attention getters.  Now to reality.  It has become obvious in the first week after the election that President-elect Trump is serious about cutting needless spending.  My all-time favorite, “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.”

In a great attention-getting move President Trump has selected a couple of very smart patriots, who have themselves built huge, successful, lean, efficient organizations, to downsize government and cut needless expenditures of many Billions of dollars; namely Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.  I am at this point a little unsure if they are just going to concentrate on the Executive Branch or will they also look into the Congress.

This Musk/Ramaswamy endeavor is a great start for the following reasons.

A mammoth, sprawling, uncontrollable, federal government currently numbering about 4.3 million plus hundreds of thousands of contract employees was never the vision or intent of the Founding Fathers.  Organizations have a propensity to grow to a point of diminishing returns; cease to be efficient, effective, and/or no longer perform the functions for which they were created.  At that point, a large organization will tend to look inward and become self-perpetuating rather than value-added for the greater good.

Their downsizing and reorientation of the Executive Branch will undoubtedly cut hundreds of Billion in unnecessary spending.  But there is a second arena that when turned inside-out and looked at through a microscope can potentially save additional hundreds of Billions of dollars annually. That is the Congress, coming up next.

UP-FRONT WORK

First President Trump should do a couple things.  One is to call in the Congressional leaders and tell them he has no intention of signing into law any passed Bill that is thousands of pages long.  I will not sign Bills that you have passed but not yet read. Additionally, I will not sign a Bill in which all of the expenditures have not been analyzed in relevant Congressional Committees and voted out of committee before going to the Floor for a vote.”

This would be the beginning of a complete overhaul of the concept of operations for the Congress.

Additionally, the entire project of reorientation, reorganization and spending cutting in the Executive and Legislative Branches should be the overall purview of Vice President Vance. He should be the Spending-Cut Czar as his immediate and number one priority project as Vice President for at least the first year.  This would be an important delegation by the President.  It would be the best possible training ground for the VP. It would set him up for a successful run for the presidency in 2028. Finally, as effective as the Musk/Ramaswamy team might be, the downside is that they are not in the chain of command. A reluctant Department leader could nod his/her head yes every day and then just blow them off and continue with business as usual.  The VP is in their chain of command and can make sure those under review clearly understand who is in charge. 

What follows is a suggested concept of operations for the Congress which currently is a lethargic, undisciplined, ill-guided failure as an operating organization that routinely wastes hundreds of Billions of taxpayer dollars every year thereby creating annual deficit spending and additions to the unsustainable national debt which is currently approaching $36 trillion.

THE NEW CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR CONGRESS

Begin by institutionalizing a set of seven new operational standards and then establish a small oversight organization that will make sure the standards are in place and utilized every day in every way.  An organization without standards is a failed organization.  

THE CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDRDS AUTHORITY, CLSA

This small agency will be formed under the Inspector General (free from Congressional influence) inside the General Services Administration (an independent government organization). The CLSA’s sole purpose will be to enforce these seven standards and to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation. The CLSA will NOT be in charge of the Congress.  They will NOT make policy.  But they will become the administrators of the day-to-day process of creating new legislation and a new budget.  The Congress has proven that it is incapable of successfully and efficiently administrating themselves.  The CLSA can become something akin to the very valuable oversight we see from the Congressional Budget Office whose work is objective, impartial and nonpartisan. 

Under the CLSA every Bill will first appear on a Congressional web site operated solely by the CLSA that is totally dedicated to enforcing the standards for every Bill.  Every member of Congress will receive an alert each time a new Bill is proposed and posted on a congressional new-legislation website. 

This website will be managed solely by the CLSA; The sponsors of a Bill may contact the CLSA at any time to update schedules, to notify members of committee hearings, to make changes to the legislation, etc.  But the CLSA employees are the only ones who can access the site to add, delete or change any piece of information.

The CLSA does not have the authority to recommend changes, additions or deletions to the intent of the legislation.  Their function is to determine if the proposed legislation meets certain established standards, with particular emphasis on Standard Number Three, Applicability. 

STANDARD NUMBER ONE, OUTLAW “EARMARKING”

An earmark is a provision inserted into a discretionary spending Billthat directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process. Most earmarks are attached to a “must-pass” Bill so that it is protected from non-passage or presidential veto. My definition of an earmark is an idea that would not have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting passed if, standing alone, it was exposed to the light of day.

STANDARD NUMBER TWO, SUNSET LEGISLATION

This is a measure, within a statute or regulation, that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific future date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. Most laws do not have sunset clauses and therefore remain in force indefinitely. Keep in mind that most laws cause some new Executive Department organization to be created.  Our government is full of agencies, divisions and branches that require annual funding, while having outlived their requirement to exit.

STANDARD NUMBER THREE, APPLICABILITY

 In the 2020, a 5593-page Covid-19 relief Bill there were scores of organizations funded from that Bill that had absolutely zero association with the Covid-19 outbreak or relief thereof.

Hereafter all of the provisions of a particular Bill must clearly identify with the subject, purpose and intent of the Bill which could save hundreds of Billions of needless expenditures per year.  It will prevent publishing Bills that are too lengthy to read; e.g., not a single Representative or Senator actually read the 5593-page Covid-19 relief Bill before they voted on it.

STANDARD NUMBER FOUR, STAND-ALONE

Every Bill will be a single-issue piece of legislation. Period.

STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS

There are two different situations to consider.  One is the federal budget process and the other is all Bills other than those in the budget process. 

The non-budget Bills will get processed in one continuous timeframe not to exceed 90-days per Bill.  The CLSA will grade the scheduling of all activities to insure it is ready to be voted on within the 90-day timeframe.  The exception to this is, at any time the Bill’s sponsor or committee may pull it from consideration. (We will get to the federal budget process in a few minutes.)

STANDARD NUMBER SIX, LEADERS CANNOT HIDE A PENDING BILL

The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate too often practice sitting on Bills, not allowing them to be voted on for protracted periods of time. This will not be allowed.  Every Bill will be voted on or before the end of its 90-day window.

STANDARD NUMBER SEVEN, STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT

Every piece of legislation will be formatted with four specific sections and pages as follows:

SECTION ONE OF THE CLSA STANDARD FORMAT IS ALL ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY AND WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CONGREESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Page 1, Administrative data

Current as of: ____ (date ____(All of the below data will be filled in as it becomes available from Congress.  For each new or changed data point, this “current as of” date will also be updated.)

Title of the legislation:  ___   ($10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan)_________

Date which starts the 90-day calendar: (the date the CLSA initially uploads it onto the website and notifies all legislators that it is there for them to act on)

Not-later-than-date to be presented, debated and voted on the floor of the House of Representatives or Senate___(90 days after the above “start” date)_____

The member of Congress who is the principal sponsor: ______________________

co-sponsors: _______________________

                                                _______________________

                                                _______________________

Author of the proposed Bill: ______________ (a member of Congress, the White House, a Congressional committee staff, Executive Branch Department, Non-governmental organization, lobbyist, private citizen, etc.)

Sunset legislation date:  ___(a date that must be included inside the Bill)_______

Schedule for committee hearings: ___(determined by congressional leaders)____

            ____(Foreign Affairs Committee)______

            ____(___etc.______Committee)______

COMMENTS ON DRAFTING OF LEGISLATION:  

Lobbyists. There are nearly 12,000 registered lobbyists in the U.S.  They work for businesses, professional associations, cities, states, non-profit organizations, etc.  They get paid to make things happen in government and mostly that is in the form of special interest legislation. Lobbyist are a prime source of today’s legislation and earmarks. It is not a completely negative concept but the downside is that they can too frequently get politicians to earmark appropriations that are self-serving and not in the best interest of the general public. 

Congressional committee staffers.  Staffers write much of the legislation today and therein lies a big problem.  Because many issues rarely fit nicely inside the domain of a single committee, there will ultimately be multiple committee staffers, working on behalf of their politicians and bringing their individual thoughts and prejudices to the effort. Too often, having begun in good faith to build a thoroughbred race horse, they end up with a herd of camels. Under today’s system that “camel” ends up earmarked to some “must pass” Bill and eventually in some Executive Branch, department or agency for execution. By then, the original intent for the Bill may be so convoluted that it is potentially a complete waste of time, energy, money and is one of the causes of the gross inefficiency of government. 

The Executive Branch of government, to include the president, should author a larger portion of the Bills.  Why?  Because they know the who, what, when, where, why and how details of their proposals that should not be delegated to lobbyists or congressional staffers. Why not let the experts, those who will be responsible for execution, do the up-front piece?  For example, if the Department of Homeland Security needs $400 million for border security, they should write the proposed Bill and seek out some member(s) of Congress to sponsor it.

SECTION 2 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Page 2, Legislation Intent

Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____

(CLSA Instructions:  This narrative must be limited to one single-spaced page, font 12 and must begin with the words, THE PURPOSE OF THIS LEGISLATION IS TO…….

Intent is one of the least used and most important aspects of any law.  Congress and the authors of a Bill should not leave it to the applicable governmental departments to infuse their own intent for what the laws should or should not be about and thereby create unintended consequences.

SECTION 3 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Page 3, Component outline

Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____

            (CLSA instructions: provide an outline of the major elements.  The format

will be similar to a Table of Contents but with a few sentences explaining each entry.

SECTION 4 OF THE STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

The Entire Bill, (e.g.HR-12 or S-16}

Current as of: ____(date inserted by CLSA)_____

(The entire Bill should be carefully crafted and consist of a very limited number of pages that can be easily understood by the general public.)

SIX CONCLUSIONS about having Congressional Legislation Standards Authority oversight of day-to-day stand-alone legislation.    

One, “$10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.” After the fact; that’s when we found out about this and dozens more ridiculous “Covid-19 relief” packages.  Who knew about them before they became law?  None of us.  Why?  Because the Congress can waste our tax dollars almost at will while hiding behind a wall of anonymity. What happened to accountability?  Without standards there is no accountability.

Two, under the above proposed CLSA program, we would have known on day-one who sponsored this insane earmark.  We would have known when a committee was going to discuss it.  We would have known weeks in advance when it was going to be voted on.  We would have known all this because it would have been a stand-alone Bill, not hidden inside a 5593-page unread Bill.  Accountability and transparency would have been front and center. The fact is, it would never have made it to the floor for a vote because visibility by the press and by we-the-people would have caused it to go away. 

Furthermore, one of the great advantages of a standards-based legislative process is that in all likelihood, the Bill would never have been written because anonymity is non-existent.

Three, journalists will use the CLSA website as a source for up-to-the-minute reporting on pending legislation.  Citizens can read it, learn what the legislation is all about, understand the positives and negatives of the intent and weigh in with their elected legislators before, not after, it becomes the law of the land.

Four, after about a year, this simple process will guide all new-legislation activities in the Congress and will be accepted as the new normal.  This process has the potential to save hundreds of Billions of dollars per year.  It will have the effect of spending our tax dollars first in support of we-the-people.

Five, additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this more disciplined approach to legislation could have the long-term impact of moving toward greater fiscal responsibility building towards a future balanced budget mindset.  

Six, successful, admired organizations operate this way every day. It is as simple as one-two-three.  One, thoroughly define a single TASK at hand.  Two, define the CONDITIONS, in this case stand-alone Bills. Three, set and enforce the operating STANDARDS without exceptions.  Task, conditions, standards; this new approach to doing the peoples’ business in Washington is within the art of the possible and it will not cost a dime to adopt and institutionalize operational change.  But it will take strong leadership to put it in place and make it happen.

THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS STANDARDS:

As previously stated above in STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS, there are two different situations to consider; the non-budget related Bill with sections 1-4 defined above, and now a look at the federal budget process legislation.  

THE FEDERAL BUDGET PROCESS LEGISLATION: To develop and pass a new budget with twelve separate appropriations Bills is supposed to be a standardized eight-month process from early February through the end of the fiscal year on 30 September. 

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RESPONSIBILITIES:  Each October federal agencies begin compiling their budgets for the following fiscal year and submit their proposals to the President via the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  OMB edits, calculates, and coordinates the budget for final review and approval by the President.  The President then forwards the approved proposal to the House and Senate, hopefully, by the first Monday in February.  

CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ACTIONS: The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the required congressional actions, February through September of each year, in order to have a completed, agreed upon and signed budget by 30 September. Upon receipt of the president’s budget, various Committees begin reviewing their respective sections of the budget; the process is spear-headed by the Budget Committee.

BUDGET RESOLUTION:  Upon receipt of the President’s Budget, the Budget Resolution document is then worked in the House and Senate. The budget resolution process allows Congress to establish a framework within which the House and Senate will consider budget-related legislation and set revenue and spending levels. The Budget Act set a target date of 15 April for adoption of a budget resolution by both chambers. The CLSA will closely monitor the resolution process looking for violations of the standards on earmarking and applicability.

BUDGET RECONCILIATION

 The Budget Act further sets a target date of 15 June for completing action on reconciliation legislation if required in able to complete the resolution. Without resolution between the House and Senate there are no rules, no timelines, no standards and no discipline.  All of that leads directly to the chaos and disasters of completing a budget for all twelve separate appropriations Bills by 30 September.

Following budget resolution and reconciliation, April through June, the 90-day CLSA standard window begins for passage of the twelve budget appropriations. 

The Budget Act of 1974 lays out the timelines for Congress in the passage of an annual budget by 30 September each year.  So, how are they doing?

According to the Pew Research Center, “Congress has passed continuing resolutions to keep government agencies running between budgets in all but four of the last 40 years. The last time Congress completed all Bills on time was in 1996.”

Congress has only adopted a budget resolution prior to the April 15 target date on four occasions since fiscal year 1985, with the most recent being fiscal year 2004.

Because Congress usually doesn’t pass its 12 appropriations Bills on time, it then uses continuing resolutions and omnibus Bills, which cover several appropriations. The consequences are a less effective, more expensive government that wastes taxpayer dollars and burdens current and future generations with massive debt.

The 12^th and final appropriations Bill for FY 2024 was finally passed 23 March 2024; six months late.

Before adjourning for the summer recess last August, Congress had passed only one of the 12 appropriations Bills for FY 2025. By the time they all got back to work, they had only 11 days to pass the remaining 11 appropriations.  It didn’t happen. September, 2024 the House and Senate approved a stopgap measure to keep the government funded for three months. Therefore, they are currently facing a funding crisis next month in December.

One of the most basic Constitutional tasks for Congress is to pass a fiscal year budget and do it on time.  However, Congressional indiscipline continues to place the day-to-day functioning of the federal government in jeopardy and thereby negatively affecting nearly all Americans in some way.

This is unacceptable institutionalized irresponsibility and ineptitude.  The system is seriously broken because of the failure of the senior leaders, House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader and Committee Chairpersons.

STANDARDS FOR THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS, FEBRUARY THROUGH SEPTEMBER.

STANDARD NUMBER ONE:  Leaders publish detailed plans, well in advance, for action with hard suspense dates for accomplishing all assigned tasks. That includes all Committee chairpersons.  If they can’t get their act together, replace them immediately.

STANDARD NUMBER TWO:  Leader’s schedule and take frequent IPRs, In-progress reviews.  If committee work is behind schedule, the senior leaders will direct night and weekend work to ensure on-time results

STANDARD NUMBER THREE:  Runing out of time is not a valid excuse.  Work hard, work long, work weekends if necessary but get it done.

STANDARD NUMBER FOUR:  Election year schedule. When 435 Representatives and 1/3 of the Senators are home campaigning every other year, that needs to be taken into consideration and not become a valid excuse for not accomplishing any of the budget tasks on time.   

the Congressional Legislation Standards Authority needs to come into play again as follows beginning with these website pages:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY, CLSA and THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS

The Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader in the Senate and House and Senate Budget Committee chairpersons will be required to prepare and publish a Concept of Operations for the next fiscal year budget preparation process published on the CLSA website not later than 15 January.  Their narratives will cover the who/what/when/where/why and how of the process in great detail. 

(The CLSA will, prior to putting the above proposals on the web site, reconcile any conflicts in dates or products.) 

CONCLUSIONS

We the people should not stand for the irresponsible, wasteful consistent conduct of our elected leaders and members of Congress.

Given the overall irresponsibility and potential waste of Billions of dollars in the current approach to the annual budget process, does it make more sense to produce a biannual budget that will be required on 30 September of every non-election year?

BOTTOM LINE:

President-elect Trump is working hard to cause the swamp to be drained and for the Executive Branch to become more efficient and less costly. He should take advantage of this popular initiative and press hard for the Speaker of the House and Leader of the Senate to immediately demand an update to the Budget Reform Act, 1974 to give it some teeth and demand Congressional actions that will cause the entire budget process to be completed on time every time.

TWO NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS

One, parts of this concept of operations was first published about three years ago but it fell on deaf ears of the Biden/Harris administration. Much has changed and is changing just since the 5 November election. If you know the president or his staff or advisors, please make them aware of this potential initiative that could cut hundreds of Billions in spending. 

Two, with President-elect’s attitude towards change and improvement there are a number of concepts of operations that could potentially interest him.  They are all contained in a book entitled, Fix the Systems, Transform America.  the subjects include:

Our Education System

Race Relations

Illegal Immigration

Voter Fraud

Federal Deficit Spending Cuts by,

            Reducing Size and Scope of the Executive Brance

            Fixing Congress

Term Limits

Universal Service for Young Adults

Achieve World Peace Forever

I’m not trying to sell books; I want to help fix America and now could be the time for several or all of these topics to take flight. As a minimum, the concept for operations is included to fix each one and could be a start point for a team to begin thinking through these problems as opposed to beginning with just a blank piece of paper.

PS: During the presidential campaign Harris was constantly advocating, “a new way forward” because it was a catchy phrase, not because she actually could articulate one.  While not naming “it,” her new way forward that she did articulate was more taxes, more spending, bigger government with more regulations. President-elect Trump, on the other hand, and without using the phrase, is in fact actively working on a new way forward that will positively impact all Americans…..smaller government, fewer bureaucrats, balanced spending, secure borders, economic growth, strength through real deterrence, law abiding communities, deported criminals, and hopefully some of the issues named above.  Need your help expanding the president-elect’s horizon with some suggested problems/solutions in the book.  

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

Thankfully the 2024 election cycle is over and the presidential race is not being decided in the courts. But being over does not mean there aren’t things to do. In fact, it is the perfect time to fix some things while they are fresh in our minds. Campaign finance reform should be one of them.

According to Forbes, the 2024 election will go down as the most expensive in U.S. history, with a projected $15.9billion in spending across all federal races; presidential, the House and the Senate.   

At the center of it all is a record-setting presidential race. Kamala Harris’ campaign committee and outside PACs raised $1.6 billion, compared to Trump’s $1.1 billion. While the final numbers are not all in, their combined $2.7 billion already beats the $2 billion raised for Trump and Biden in 2020 and dwarfs the $1.2 billion raised in 2016 for Trump and Clinton.

Among other big doners, Harris was backed by Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates who each contributed $50 million in support of her campaign. Trump received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars from just two backers, Timonthy Mellon and Elon Musk, who pumped millions into pro-Trump PACs.

But the 2024 campaign is not unique.  Going back to 2020, Forbes analyzed the top 20 contributors and found they spent a total of $2.3 billion in contributions.

What are they spending the money on? According to AdImpact, the total bill for ad spending in the 2024 election hit almost $11 billion, a new record and $2 billion more than in 2020. You remember the almost continuous flow of campaign ads that we got so sick of watching we almost wore out the mute button on our TV remotes.

That whole campaign finance gig just has a really bad smell. It’s influence buying on steroids. The whole contribution concept of operations does not represent the general public, it has become a contest within a contest to see which candidate can sell their soul to the highest bidding billionaires. Shame on us.

THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION is supposed to be in charge of all this.

“The FEC is an independent agency of the United States government that enforces the Federal Election Campaign Act, 1971 which covers U.S. campaign finance laws and oversees U.S. federal elections. It is led by six commissioners who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.”  First question, if FEC members are nominated by the serving president how, if they are all of one party, do they function as an “independent agency” without some bias?

The commission describes its duties as, “to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.”

Under the Federal Election Campaign Act, in place for 2023 and 2024, an individual can donate to more than one candidate (for president, House and Senate) in both the primary and general elections.  The limit is $3,300 to each candidate in each election.

How then did billionaire Michael Bloomberg get $50 million into the Harris campaign? The short answer is through a PAC.

POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES, PAC

A PAC is typically organized for the purpose of raising money to either elect or defeat a political candidate or ballot issue. 

Every PAC is required to register with the Federal Elections Committee within ten days of its formation. 

There are three main types of PACS.

One, Separate Segregated Funds, SSF, is a PAC organized by a corporation, labor union, membership organization or trade association. This kind of PAC can solicit money only from those connected with the association that sponsors it. 

Two, a Nonconnected PAC is independent of the above organizations, and therefore permitted to solicit donations from the public.

Three, Super PACs may solicit and accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor organizations and other PACs.  They may not accept contributions from foreign nationals, federal contractors, national banks or federally chartered corporations. Super PACS can use their contributions to bankroll independent expenditures and political activity. 

WHY PACs?

PACs are not an essential part of our important election process. We can do without them.

There is certainly a downside to the overall election process that contains a provision for, “unlimited contributions.”

What do we lose if we just rely on contributions from individual U.S. voter-eligible citizens?  Nothing important.  There will certainly be less TV advertising.  

 CHANGE THE LAW

Campaign financing for all federal candidates (president, House, Senate) should consist of one, and only one, source and that source is the voter who is geographically associated with the candidate.  for example, any legally registered voter may donate to a presidential candidate; any registered voter in a state may contribute to their U.S. senatorial candidates; and any registered voter in a congressional district may contribute to their House of Representative contest. 

During the 2023-2024 two-year election cycle the limit for contributions by individuals to federal candidates for President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives was increased to $3,300 per election per candidate.  That is, $3,300 to a candidate for President, the House and Senate for a total of $9,900 for the primary election and $9,900 for the general election. Anyone found to have contributed more than these limits will be guilty of a federal offence and subject to a fine and/or imprisonment.

HOW TO POLICE THE CONTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Concurrently, every federal candidate must scrupulously and continuously account for every campaign expenditure. For every national election, the federal election commission could have temporary auditors operating in all 435 congressional districts and they will have open access to every candidate’s campaign finance records.  The FEC auditors, operating in each congressional district, will also audit senatorial and presidential campaigns. FEC auditors will, throughout the campaign, audit candidates’ books with the objective of aligning contributions and expenditures. 

Candidates are to file periodic reports that disclose the total amount of all the campaign contributions they receive, along with the identity, address and occupation of any donor who contributes more than $200 during the campaign period.

How can the FEC accountants, in each of the 435 Districts, monitor individual contribution input from the voters and identify the voters who are exceeding the contribution limits and thereby identify the candidates who are accepting those too-large contributions? One way is to identify every contribution with the voters’ Voter ID number.  I know, Voter ID is not yet a reality but it is the solution to many other potentially fraudulent actions throughout the election cycle.  

If Voter ID can become a reality, the auditors will immediately know that the contributor is a citizen and an eligible voter. With contributions sorted by Voter ID numbers they can immediately know if the total contributions have exceeded the legal limit to any one candidate during the primary/general election cycles.

During each calendar year of a national election, the FEC could create some number of panels consisting of five retired federal judges for each panel.  All accounting irregularities will be immediately referred to a FEC panel of judges. If the panel finds conclusive evidence of gross campaign finance irregularities, the candidate could be subject to being disqualified by the FEC. That regulation alone, will encourage accurate and legal reporting into the election system.  

CONCLUSIONS

The election process should lead us to the best qualified person being elected, as opposed to ending up with the best fund raiser.

The Federal Election Commission cannot provide effective oversight when forced to deal with an “unlimited contributions” provision leading to multi-billion-dollar campaigns.

Super PACs are for the most part uncontrolled.  Analysis of the use of Super PAC contributions reveals that it is primarily used for negative campaigning. “The role that super PACs often play is to do the dirty work for a campaign,” said Chris Karpowitz, co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. When name-calling and character assassination become the dominant message, the American people tune out and probably gain a healthy disrespect for both candidates.

BOTTOM LINE

There is little goodness in multi-billion-dollar political campaigning.  It’s not hard to fix it so it should become one of President Trump’s 100-day initiatives while it is all fresh in our minds.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of two books, Vision to Execution and Fix the Systems, Transform America as well as the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

The month of May is strawberry season in North Carolina.  Lots of them and they are delicious.

This morning, 22 October, when I went to the barn to do chores, I noticed we had our first frost of the season.  As I was opening a gate to go out into the horse pasture, I noticed one, lone, small, red wild strawberry.  I picked it and before eating it, a thought occurred to me.  That little berry was tough enough to bloom and mature in spite of the season and the cold.

That is sort of a metaphor for life.   If you are tough enough you can bloom and mature in spite of abnormal, adverse conditions. 

Tens of millions of Americans are currently disadvantaged and I’m sure many of them feel desperate to improve their lives.   Well, maybe this is the time to do just that.

A disproportionate number of the disadvantaged are African Americans.  Currently, African American unemployment is the lowest since records have been kept. 

The upcoming election may actually be a national referendum on the two political party’s philosophies; big government vs less government intrusion, stifling regulations vs private sector innovation, government hand-outs vs a helping-hand. 

The above article was first published just before the mid-term elections in 2018. Yesterday, 1 November, 2024, I found three lonely, small, red wild strawberries.   

Don’t under-estimate American grit.  Given a chance there are a lot of out-of-season “strawberries” out there among we-the-people that are just tough enough to bloom in spite of the odds and be all they can be/should be.  

Go vote. make change happen

Marv Covault