Author: admin

“In our country 80% of homicides are committed with guns, whereas in England the figure is only 4 %.

More Americans have died of gunshot wounds in the United States since 1968 than have been killed in all the wars we have fought here and abroad since 1775.”

Those are a couple compelling, attention-getting facts recently presented by Joseph Blocher, a distinguished professor of law at Duke University.

SOME U.S. GUN STATS: There was covid-period record-setting statistics associated with fire arms.

• In 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S.,more than in any other year on record,
• Some gun-data history: While 2021 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population. On a per capita basis, there were 14.6-gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2021; the highest rate since the early 1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3-gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.
• Suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2021, 54% of all gun-related deaths were suicides, 26,328.
• 18,874, the number of firearm deaths, excluding suicides in 2023.
• 36,357, the number of firearm injuries in 2023.
• 6,192, the number of children and teenagers shot in 2023.
• 14 million, the number of guns Americans purchased in 2023.
• An estimated 82.9 million people owned at least one firearm in 2023.
• In 2023 the average decrease in homicides across U.S. cities was 12.3% and gun injuries declined in record amounts since 2021.
• Gun sales have declined steadily since 2020.
• 494.4 million, the cumulative total of firearms produced for the U.S. market since 1899.
• Gun ownership increased 28% from 1994 to 2023.
• In 2023, 72% of gun owners said they keep a firearm for protection.
• Only 6.06 million firearms are registered in the U.S.
• Women accounted for half of all gun purchases between 2019 and 2021 and first-time gun owners were more likely to be female.
• An estimated 40% of 52 million households have a least one firearm.
• An interesting fact is that federal data over the past 50 years show a direct relationship between the number of guns produced and deaths from fire arms for that same period.

These facts beg an answer to the question, can there be an intelligent discussion about gun control leading perhaps to some resolution?

As of right now gun control is hopelessly in the hands of politicians. The Republicans simply say, “I support the Second Amendment” which is a non-solution, implying the status quo is fine. It isn’t fine.   

The Democrats seem to imply that “gun control” is synonymous with “outlaw all guns.” Not a reasonable, practical, or intelligent approach.

With those two hardline political positions, neither party appears to be looking for a practical, workable, fair solution that keeps in place the “right to bear arms” guaranteed by the second amendment to the Constitution as well as increased safe-guards against the availability of guns to those who would use then to harm themselves and others. We need a plan, not an argument. Any planning process begins with assembling facts and assumptions and articulating a desired end state.

FACTS AND ASSUMPTIONS RELEVENT TO ANY GUN CONTROL PLAN:

How many fire arms are in circulation in the U.S? No one knows for sure but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has conducted exhaustive studies as recently as 2023 and concluded from historical production rates, exports and attrition rates over many decades that there could be as many as 378 million guns in circulation in the U.S.  

Fact, there are no existing federal laws requiring all guns to be registered by local, state or federal authorities.

Fact, serial numbers on newly manufactured guns became more standardized and required by law in the United States with the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968. But there are many tens of millions of guns in circulation without a serial number.

Fact, we do not know who has firearms or how many each individual owns.

Bottom line fact: there is no national data base of information with which to develop consistent “control” laws for all U.S. citizen gun owners.

Fact, in recent years women’s firearm ownership has increased 178%. Assumption, this is for self-protection from our on-going crisis of lawlessness.

Assumption, there are tens of millions of guns in homes across the U.S. that have not been used for long periods of time and under the right circumstances could be given up by the owners.  Case in point, in my younger years I hunted frequently and still have a number guns that I have not used or even fired for several decades. I could/would turn them in and take them out of circulation.

Part assumption, part fact, THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS, NOW.

Bottom line fact, President Biden desperately wants his legacy to include gun removal from private citizens, the Second Amendment be damned. 

BIPATISAN SAFER COMMUNITIES ACT: On June 25, 2022, President Biden signed into law this Act which is the first major federal gun control bill passed since the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

The Act has more to do with mental health, school safety, and funding for related programs than it does with banning or restricting specific types of firearms, which is likely why it received enough Republican support to pass the House and Senate.

COURSE OF ACTION ONE FOR GUN CONTROL:

March, 2024, Biden’s Department of so-called Justice launched an initiative, under the guise of the Safer Communities Act to confiscate your guns. The National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center is designed to provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys, judges, clinicians, victim service and social service providers, community organizations, and behavioral health professionals responsible for implementing laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

“Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “The launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center will provide our partners across the country with valuable resources to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others. The establishment of the Center is the latest example of the Justice Department’s work to use every tool provided by the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to protect communities from gun violence.”

Most will admit on the surface some of the provisions could be helpful.  But when put into practice it can become a national disaster.  Keep in mind this national program was not authorized by Congress.  This is a Biden administration Executive Order-type operation.

The operable questions here are, who are the people who, “pose a threat”? Where does the information/intelligence emanate from?  Who is authorized to raise this “red flag”? Is the information coming from a disgruntled neighbor?  From a jilted lover?  From a jealous workmate? From a hated family member? From an “extremist”?

 Keep in mind that your president has declared in a prime-time speech that, “MAGA extremists are a threat to America.” There you have it you will be doing the president’s bidding if you turn in your neighbor who is part of the 75-100 million citizens who the democrats categorize as MAGA extremist members; most of whom are probably gun owners.  And don’t forget that 72% of them own guns for personal protection of their family in Biden’s lawless society.

Supporters of ERPO say that using ERPO authority as a confiscation tool is a far-fetched claim. 

Far-fetched?

If I had claimed on 20 January 2021 that Biden would turn the southern border over to the Mexican cartels you would have said, that’s too far-fetched.

 If I had told you the porous border would allow such volume of illegal drugs that over 300 drug overdoses would happen every day with no counter action by the president, you would have said, that’s too farfetched.

If I had told you the Biden administration would create a border situation that would allow millions of criminals, gang members, cartel operatives, terrorists, drug dealers and human traffickers into the U.S., you would have said, that’s too farfetched.

If I had said Biden would cut and run from Afghanistan leaving $70 billion dollars’ worth of military arms and equipment for the Taliban, you would have said, that’s too farfetched. 

I could go on and on: ruined the military, insulted long-term allies, pulled sanctions from Iran thereby enriching them, abandoned our energy independence and then begged for imported oil from Venezuela, reduced the strategic oil reserves to dangerous levels, supported defunding police setting off the rise of a lawless America, put together the perfect storm for inflation to rise from 1.4% to 9%, caused interest rates to quadruple, have taxpayers pay for $1.2 trillion student loan debt, invite 11 million un-vetted illegal aliens into our country and give them a debit card and free travel, etc. etc. If these Biden-created crisis issues had been predicted on 20 January 2021, they would have all seemed too farfetched to become a reality. But here we are.

The point being, do not under-estimate what this administration is ready, willing and able to do to the American public. It’s all about power and control, your constitutional rights be damned.

Currently, the weaponized justice system crisis existing at the local, state and federal levels across the country cannot be trusted to recognize an honest citizen’s right to due process.  This red flag operation will likely operate in this order:

First, authorities will accept the accusation that a named person is a threat as fact and immediately pronounce sentencing; confiscate personal weapons, slander the accused’s good name and reputation and finally, perhaps, look for the truth of the accusation that the citizen is a threat to the community and/or themselves.  

Interestingly, this new Biden administration arms control roll-out does not focus on the armed and dangerous criminals and gang members who are roaming our streets and guilty of most of the homicides. This is about focusing on you and your guns; the guns that 72% of you say are to protect your family.

Bottom line, Course of Action One could quickly become an authoritarian dictatorial disaster threatening Constitutional rights. And, this is a big AND, the only ones left with guns will be the criminals.

One of the greatest visionaries the world has ever known, Thomas Jefferson.summed it up best about 240 years ago, “There is no justification for taking away individuals’ freedom in the guise of public safety.”

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, REAL ARMS CONTROL

The operative word is “control”.  In order to have real arms “control” we have to know where each gun is, who owns it and how to identify it and then reap the benefits from that data. Is that even possible?

Yes, it is possible; think, vehicles.  Vehicles are killing machines; more than 44,000 Americans died in vehicle accidents in 2023. Every vehicle is registered.  Every vehicle has a serial number. We pay a tax every year for the privilege of owning a vehicle. Every vehicle has to undergo an annual safety inspection.  That’s “control.”

You, tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners are saying right now, I don’t want to register my guns because I don’t trust the government with that information.  Yes, getting actual “control” over guns in America is going to be an inconvenience and an intrusion, but it is a necessary step if we are going to get to the heart of the gun problem which is armed criminals and gang members killing people in our lawless society. We have to have data to get to the end state.  A plan without a declared end state is not a plan.  Please just read on.

Full disclosure:  I am a gun owner; pistols, rifles, shotguns.  As a small boy growing up on an Iowa farm, there were many ways for youngsters to earn 25 or even 50 cents doing special tasks.  I saved my money and at age 10 ordered my first gun, a single-shot 22 caliber rifle, from the Sears and Robuck catalog which was about 2 inches thick and the Amazon.com of that era.  Not much background checking for a gun purchase in those days. In my younger years I hunted, but most of my guns are of no use to me now.   No one in the family wants them. I only need to keep one for family protection.  What to do with them? I know folks with the same situation and have done the following:  Go to a local gun “show.”  As you are unloading the guns you hope to sell at the “show” someone may likely approach you in the parking lot, inquire if you wish to sell them, make you an offer and the next day he/she may be on their way to Chicago with a load of guns that no one in the world knows about and that will be in the hands of street gang members for the next Saturday night Chicago shootout.

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, PHASE ONE:

Spring, 2025, with a new administration in place, Congress could pass the Gun Control Act of 2025.  It should not be more than a few pages long and can be published in every newspaper in the country.  The Act must contain the following directives:

1.Every county Sheriff’s Department will be the focal point for the Gun Control Act, 2025. All of the data on firearms they collect will be sent to the State to establish an up-to-date accurate gun-data collection point.

2. Any local, state or federal gun registration system currently in-being will become null-and-void upon passage of the Gun Control Act of 2025.

3. Before the end of calendar year 2025, every gun owner will have carried all of their firearms to their local Sheriff’s Department to register their weapons, by make, model caliber and type; for example, Winchester, model 336, 30 caliber, lever-action, rifle, serial number NC123654) and have a serial number engraved if one does not already exist. The states will provide each Sheriff with a block of serial numbers.  That data along with the owner’s name and address will be forwarded to the State’s central gun data collection point.

4. Also, while at that 2025 visit to the Sheriff’s Department the owners may turn in any weapons for destruction, no questions asked, as part of a federal government nation-wide Gun Buy-back Program and receive $100 dollars per weapon.  The Sheriff’s Department will be responsible for security of those weapons and for operating a weapons destruction program that will be personally observed by a Sheriff’s Deputy. I would probably participate in that program.

5. As of December 2025 every firearm manufactured in the U.S. must have a serial number before sold to dealers.  Every firearm imported into the U.S. must have a serial number.  And every firearm in the inventory of every gun dealer in the U.S. must have a serial number.

Note, by the end of December, 2025 it is conceivable that every firearm in the country, all 387 million of them, will fall in one of two categories.  Category One consists of firearms that are registered/serial numbered, legal and we know exactly where they are located. Category Two consists of all other firearms. It follows that local, state and federal officials can/should participate in a single continuous task, 24/7; that is, find the illegal firearms and whoever possesses them because both are in violation of the law.

  This is the beginning of “gun control.”

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, PHASE TWO:

6. January, 2026 the States will assess a $25 tax on every registered gun on the State’s Gun Registry, payable by 31 January, 2026. The owner of the gun has two choices. One, they may pay the tax and receive a 2026 registry card for each firearm, the same system used for the annual registry of vehicles.  Two, they may take the firearm along with the tax notice to the Sheriff’s Department, turn in the weapon for destruction, receive $100 from the Federal Gun Buy-back Program, have the gun removed from the State Gun Registry with no tax due.

Note, by the end of Phase Two, 31 January, 2026 it is assumed that perhaps tens of millions of the current estimated 378 million guns in circulation will have ceased to exist as part of the Federal Gun Buy-back Program.

COURSE OF ACTION TWO, PHASE THREE, From 1 February,2026 forward:

7. Anyone in the “possession” of an unregistered/non-serial numbered firearm will have committed a felony offense and will be subject to arrest. “Possession” means on their person, stored where they reside, in their vehicle, in a separate storage facility or any other space that would logically lead one to believe the weapon is, at least temporarily in their “possession.” If the gun has been borrowed from someone else, they are still in “possession.”

8. Anyone arrested for possession of an unregistered/no Serial numbered firearm will be jailed.  If that arrest is their first or second, they may be eligible for bail if the presiding judge is led to believe they are not a flight-risk or a threat to society. The judge may not, under any circumstances, set bail for any amount that is less than $100,000.  If this is their third or more arrest, “three strikes and out” comes into play. There will be no bail and they will remain in jail until tried and sentenced if found guilty.

9. Under no circumstance will any prosecutor or attorney general or judge be allowed to downgrade the charge of possession of an illegal firearm from a felony to a misdemeanor.

10. If found guilty of possession of an illegal firearm, the sentence will be a minimum of five years in jail without possibility of parole.

11. If I have a registered and serial numbered rifle I don’t need, can I sell it to my neighbor?  Sure, just go to the Sheriff’s Office, have them initiate a background check on the buyer and if cleared change the registration data for the owner of that firearm.

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED?

We have created a plan with positive identifiable end states.

For those individuals who are so depressed and mentally disturbed that they are contemplating suicide, one of the reasons they turn to suicide by gun is that guns are too readily available; 378 million of them.  Reduction of the inventory under the Federal Gun Buy-back Program should significantly reduce availability.

Every law-abiding gun owner has participated in a simple federal program that will protect their rights rather than put them in a situation wherein they could, at any time, be unjustifiably labeled a threat to society just because they own a gun.

DETERRENCE IS A POWERFUL FORCE:

Focused local law enforcement. 378 law enforcement officers were shot in the line of duty in 2023. With a justice system that requires incarceration of criminals for possession of a firearm, local law enforcement can focus on arresting those in passion of an illegal firearm. 

States’ Bureau of Investigation can focus on the larger issues associated with movement, distribution and sale of illegal firearms in their state.

Focused Federal ATF. The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms can focus on their mission to,” investigate and prevent federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms”. But now, they no longer have to be concerned with all firearms, just that number that are not registered and/or not serial numbered. 

With this law supporting all law enforcement agencies those gun “shows” mentioned above will now be crawling with authorities who are inspecting every firearm in the area for a serial number. 

More deterrence. Every one of the 1.4 million gang members in the 33,000 U.S. gangs should begin to think twice about strapping on their illegal gun before hitting the streets every night and possibly facing 5 years in jail without parole.

Additionally, with all of this focus and deterrent action, anyone contemplating buying an unregistered gun will find them increasingly scarce commodities and likely very expensive.

This law could/should become a deterrence model for all law enforcement.  That is, define the felony along with an appropriate sentence. Some might consider that too controlling but the reality today is we simply cannot trust our prosecutors, attorneys general and judges to act as keepers of the peace for the public’s safety and security. 

Recent case in point, a New York police officer, Jonathan Diller, was shot and killed by a career criminal, Guy Revera, who had been arrested 21 times.  Eleven times the charges were for a felony offence to include possession of a gun just 12 months earlier. Blood is on the hands of the local prosecutor and judge who allowed Rivera to be on the streets.

What has become common-place is for criminals with long wrap-sheets to be turned loose without bail to commit another crime.  This is not rocket-science; career criminals should be in jail thereby reenforcing the deterrence to convince individuals that crime does not pay.

CONCLUSIONS: 

We need some type of positive control over the growing inventory of weapons.

The focus of any program should be getting the guns away from criminals NOT from law-abiding citizens.

This plan to focus local, state and federal officials on illegal firearms is another reason in the long list of reasons to close our southern border.

A Federal Buy-back Program is a positive, easy, non-invasive step.

“Gun control” is a serious and very political national issue.  It is but should not be politically divisive.  We can and should find some satisfying dialogue that protects law abiding citizens and simultaneously targets gun-toting criminals.

If properly presented this issue/plan should become a bipartisan initiative.

If the plan is executed, we may need more prison cells. 

This proposed Gun Control Act, 2025 will actually be about rights, responsibilities and creating a better America.

 RECOMMENDATIONS:

Candidates for federal office in all political parties should, right now, put this gun control program on the campaign platform and support it.  

The Biden administration won’t so the next administration should immediately kill the despicable, invasive and probably not Constitutional REPO program the Justice Department is currently launching to confiscate your guns.

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

PART 1, WHERE WE ARE TODAY

THE PROBLEM AS DEFINED IN SOME RECENT HEADLINES:

HONDURAS DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY OVER GANG EXTORTIONS

EL SALVADOR: THOUSANDS OF TROOPS SURROUND CITY IN GANG CRACKDOWN

COLOMBIA’S ‘CAPITAL OF HORROR’ DESPAIRS AMID NEW WAVE OF GANG VIOLENCE

GUATEMALA BATTLES WAVE OF MEXICAN DRUG GANGS

MEXICO’S GANGS ARE BECOMING CRIMINAL CONGLOMERATES

OVER 200 GANGS ACTIVE IN PANAMA

THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT IS LOSING GROUND AS GANGS TAKE TERRITORY

GANGS RULE HAITI’S CAPITAL, KIDNAPPING AND KILLING THOUSANDS

As we move through this discussion, keep in mind that there are three crisis issues inexorably linked together facing Americans every day; gangs, cartels and drugs.

CRIMINAL GANGS IN THE U.S.

Some of the largest gangs in the US include the Latin Kings, 18th Street, MS13, Bloods, and Crips.

TRANSNATIONAL GANGS:

Transitional gangs move us forward from the urban neighborhood street gang that controls a few city blocks and pushes a little dope, to something larger, more violent, and linked and aligned to more advanced and sophisticated crime organizations in Latin America.

 MS13, for example, has become a transnational organization in that leaders in El Salvadore have been sending representatives into the U.S. illegally, to gain control of local MS13 gangs. The representatives then connect the local MS13 gangs to leaders in El Salvador. This transnational alliance, called “The Program”, or “La Programma,” in which the leaders direct the American MS13 gangs to become more violent and to control territory. The gangs accomplish this by killing rivals and extorting legitimate businesses run by legal Central American immigrants and illegal businesses such as prostitution and gambling. The local, U.S.-based MS13 gangs then send a portion of their profits to the leadership in El Salvador.

MS13 is the current leading transnational gang example. It is the largest street gang in Latin America and one of the world’s largest and most violent gangs. The gang began in Los Angeles during the 1980s, formed by immigrants from El Salvador. The MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha, said to be a combination of Mara, meaning gang, Salva, for Salvador, and trucha, which translates roughly into street smarts. The 13 represents the position of M in the alphabet. MS13’s motto is, “kill, rape, control.”

MS13 is a transnational criminal organization with more than 10,000 members in the United States. They regularly conduct gang activities in at least 40 states and the District of Columbia.

It is important to point out that MS13 is not the only transnational gang organization in the U.S., the 18th Street gangs also continue to expand their influence in the United States. FBI investigations reveal these transnational gangs are present in almost every state and continue to grow their memberships

GANGS vs SOCIETY:     American gangs are responsible for 48.9% of violent crimes, 42.9% of property crime,39.9% of drug sales and 13% of all homicides.  Gangs are responsible for close to 40% of homicides in most Latin American countries.  A Portland study found that 49.1% of human trafficking victims were connected to a gang; 96.4% of the victims were female.

LAW ENFORCEMENT vs GANGS:

MS13 gang member apprehensions in the U.S. in FY 2023 were a trivial 178. In 2019 the FBI dismantled 217 of the existing 33,000 gangs; .0065%.

In 2020, 71% of gang members actively used social media for mobilizing and attracting vulnerable teenagers, video posting, bragging, and celebrating the life of a gang member.

WHO IS WORKING THE CRIMINAL GANG PROBLEM?

The National Gang Center (NGC) is a project funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The NGC is an integral component of the Justice Department’s mission to provide innovative leadership in coordination with federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems to prevent and reduce crime. The NGC disseminates information, knowledge, and outcome‐driven practices that engage and empower those in local communities with chronic and emerging gang problems to create comprehensive solutions to prevent gang violence, reduce gang involvement, and suppress gang‐related crime.

MEXICAN CARTELS: 

The current criminal landscape in Mexico is driven largely by the battle between the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS), though three other major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), Los Zetas, Gulf Cartel, and Juarez Cartel, all contribute to high levels of violence.

• Mexican drug cartels are leading suppliers of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other illicit narcotics to the United States.
• The cartels and the drug trade fuel rampant corruption and violence in Mexico, contributing to tens of thousands of homicides in the country each year.
• Since Mexico launched a war on the cartels in 2006, the United States has provided billions of dollars in security and counternarcotics assistance with limited success.

RECENT EVENTS:

Rising violence in 2018 helped propel President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, into office, with Mexicans’ desperation for basic safety a key driver of the vote for change. He promised a seismic shift, ending the war on drugs with a concept of operations he calls, “hugs not bullets.” It has been and continues to be a complete failure.

Reported in 2019: “The streets of Culiacan, the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, became a battlefield, with the Sinaloa cartel directly confronting the government and winning. The week before, thirteen police officers were killed in an ambush in Michoacan, likely by the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel. Overall, murders and kidnappings are at record levels and spreading through Mexico’s once-safer industrial heartland. Talk of Mexico becoming a failed state is again on the rise.”

Criminal gangs and cartels in Mexico, under AMLO rule are experiencing accelerated growth in seized territory, taking over elected and appointed positions in local governments, the murder of political rivals and extortion of local businesses.  Killing of government officials, candidates and political party members increased from 94 in 2018 to 355 in 2020.  Good, competent people are reluctant to run for office, fearing for their lives and the safety of their families. The situation is driving Mexican families to the U.S. in record numbers; about 30,000 in December, 2023. Ironically, by diversifying into migrant smuggling, cartels are profiting from the locals who are attempting to flee from cartel control.

Mexico is disappearing one village and town at a time.  The common scenario: Armed criminal gangs and/or cartel operatives will enter a town in force, start threating, extorting, torturing and killing locals until they relinquish all control. For example, organized crime groups operated in 16% of Mexico’s municipalities in 2017. Three years later in 2020 that number had increased to 29%.  Some of these facts from an exhaustive Wall Street Journal article 26 February, last month.

Cartels vs criminal gangs; criminal gangs vs cartels; cartel/criminal gang partnerships, etc. “Who’s on first?”

As the cartels continue at war against each other, Mexico’s criminal landscape has shifted over the past decade, with splinter groups and more that 400 criminal gangs emerging. Those groups partner with and fight against the remaining major cartels that control much of the drug trade. That proliferation has been both a challenge and asset for major cartels, but it has overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement.  The worse news is that most of these criminal organizations have ties inside the U.S.

The “splintering” is in some cases intentional and operationally advantageous to reinforce a well-known and successful operational concept, “maximum centralized planning, maximum decentralized execution.” The Sinaloa Cartel, for example, has split into more than 37 “small and medium sized cells.”  The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion operates with more than 36 cells around the country.

The proliferation of small gangs and the presence of powerful criminal organizations have overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement.

The criminal organizations in Mexico are extremely empowered by the fact that they believe there is no threat to them by the Mexican state.

It is generally held that by threats to individuals and/or their families or by choice many of Mexico’slaw-enforcementauthorities are actively and sometimes willingly participating in organized crime.

CARTELS IN THE U.S.

There are at least 13 U.S. cities that are used as distribution hubs by the Mexican drug cartels. These cartels primarily employ Mexican nationals to oversee their distribution operations in the U.S. Their second choice for leadership positions are U.S. citizens who are of Mexican origin.

 This is where the transnational gangs in the U.S. come into play. They are the in-place foot soldiers for the distribution and sale of cartel-supplied drugs.

THE IMPORTATION OF FENTENYL:

The availability of massive amounts of fentanyl changed everything. Since it is so profitable and it can be moved in such small quantities, fentanyl has made the cartels much more empowered, controlling and rich, thereby overwhelming all levels of authority.

It’s encouraging to hear about U.S. authorities intercepting hundreds or even thousands of pounds of fentanyl at the Mexican border. That is, until we also hear the Border Patrol authorities tell us they estimate that the recovery is only about 5% of what gets successfully into the U.S. and distributed throughout the country.

On average in 2023, 307 young Americans died EVERY DAY from drug overdose, the majority from fentanyl.  Has your president ever mentioned this?

WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THE INVASION OF CRIMINAL GANGS, CARTELS and DRUGS? Let’s start at the top….

• The President: President Biden is so fond of warning us about “emerging existential threats”, shouldn’t criminal gangs and cartel operatives make the list and  at least rank up there with “MAGA extremists”?

• The Vice President: Isn’t this invasion related to the 3 million Biden illegal “got aways” at our nonexistent southern border? Should we expect something from VP Kamala, our border czar?  Dream on.

• Homeland Security: Isn’t this all about national security of our homeland or the lack thereof?  Where is Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas?  Still AWOL?

• The Attorney General: At its roots, isn’t this all about law and order?  What have we heard from the nation’s “top cop” the Attorney General?

• The FBI: In a couple Congressional hearings this year, the FBI Director has mentioned gangs but only in the context of them as a growing threat, with no mention of a solution to the problem.

• Drug Enforcement Administration: The mission of the DEA is to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States, or any other competent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal members of organizations, involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United States. How are they doing?  307 Americans overdosed per day.

• Congress: How about some specific focused Congressional hearing to get the above players activated?

• The National Gang Intelligence Center: NGIC is an agency of the US Department of Justice established by the FBI upon order of Congress in 2005. The NGIC is a multi-agency effort that integrates the gang intelligence assets of federal, state, and local law enforcement entities to serve as a centralized intelligence resource for gang information and analytical support. Ever heard of them?

• The Drug Czar: Dr. Rahul Gupta, the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, ONDCP will have a $46.1 billion FY24 budget to advise the president, evaluate, coordinate, and oversee the international and domestic anti-drug efforts. of executive branch agencies. and ensures that such efforts sustain and complement State and local anti-drug activities. Ever heard from them?

• Transnational anti-gang (TAG) task forces:  These FBI TAGs continue to work with international partners to eradicate transnational gangs.  Success rate is about nonexistent.

• The National Gang Center: NGC is a project funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The NGC is an integral component of the Justice Department’s mission to provide innovative leadership in coordination with federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems to prevent and reduce crime.

The alphabet soup issue: POTUS, VPOTUS, HLS, DOJ, FBI, NGIC, DEA, ONDCP, TAG, OJP, NGC, OJJDP, etc. collectively equals tens of billions of annual tax dollars, thousands of bureaucrats and untold laws and regulations. The problems get studied to death year after year with little or no action at the point of execution which is every community in America. Case in point, with all that wasted money and manpower we apprehended a grand total of 178 MS13 members in the U.S. in FY 2023, while we lost, to drug overdose, on average, 307 young Americans EVERY DAY. 

The drug policy experts tell us, “The magnitude of this calamity now eclipses every previous drug epidemic, from the 1980s to the prescription opioid crisis of the 2000s. “

FYI, AN ONGOING ACTION BY EL SALVADOR’S NEW PRESIDENT:

President Nayib Bukele has declared a state of emergency and constructed a huge new mega-prison, the largest in the Americas, as the centerpiece. The prison will eventually house up to 40,000 inmates. Tens of thousands of gang members have been rounded up and the first group of 2,000 have been moved to the prison. President Bukele tweeted “This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, unable to do any further harm to the population.

Dramatic photos on line of “President Nayib Bukele’s gang prison” shows hundreds of inmates in tight formations completely helpless and totally compliant.  It is obvious that this is a prison where the inmates are neither running the show nor conducting gang operations from inside. Interesting

SOME CONCLUSIONS:

• All of this is sad news, bad news, going south rapidly and a true threat to our safety and security.

• As usual we are trying to solve a serious problem with a massive federal bureaucracy and by throwing billions of dollars at the problem repeatedly and getting the same failed annual results; the true definition of insanity.

• Our most senior leaders in the executive and congressional branches have, are currently and will in the near-term fail to lead.

• No society can survive without law and order at the local level; that must therefore be the point of execution. At the local level investigate, find the gang members, arrest them, try them and send them to prison. All the planning and funding must focus on that formula.

• We should probably begin to build more prisons.  

• Lack of law and order is consistently destroying our cities and their economy’s.

• Arresting criminals with long rap-sheets of 10, 20 some times more prior arrests flies in the face of the simple philosophy that if the criminals are off the streets and in jail, crime will go down.

The U.S. may have to consider using force in Mexico to take down the cartels.  I absolutely believe it can be done.  See the concept of operations at    THE U.S. IS UNDER ATTACK www.WeThePeopleSpeaking.com Sep 4, 2023

HOW TO MOVE FORWARD.

The current problem is our president: First, he will not admit he has a problem that exists in his administration.  If forced to address a crisis he will do so with the blame game.  Most of the time it begins with, “My predecessor…..” as he did 13 times during his recent State of the Union address. Cardinal rule, “Blame” is the first fallback position of a failed leader. Then he will let the issue die out of focus and then hope the left media comes to his rescue by dropping it from public view.

BOTTOM LINE:  this cannot be allowed to endure.

PART 2, LET’S CLEAN UP THIS MESS

We should recognize that the alphabet soup government agencies have proven they are, collectively, incapable of solving this problem with their current agenda.  Every year, within the local, state and federal governments we probably produce thousands of studies, have countless meetings spend billions of dollars and watch the problem get progressively worse every year because no ONE is in charge.  There is no specificity, no focus associated with the day-to-day efforts.  There are no identifiable positive results.  There are no best practices being shared from community to community. 

Here is what we need to do:

PHASE ONE, 2024: Elect a president who can lead, who can plan, who can act and will kick ass and take names.

PHASE TWO, 20 January, 2025. About 4 pm:

Begin the process of focusing we-the-people on criminal gangs. Begin the process of changing the culture of law enforcement in America. Criminals, once arrested, should not be intentionally and immediately put back on the streets to create another crime.  

The new president’s first Executive Order should specify his or her intent and look something like this (para 1-11:

1. The level of lawlessness and drug abuse in this country is unacceptable and a growing threat to our national security. Therefore, my intent is to rid our country of criminal gangs, cartel operatives and drug dealers by focusing our efforts on identifying every one of them, arrest them, give them a speedy trial and if convicted put them in jail, thereby dramatically reducing crimes of all types at all levels and simultaneously reducing the import, distribution and sale of illegal drugs.

2. To accomplish this, I am hereby declaring a narrowly focused national state of emergency to curb rampant lawlessness across the country.  It will NOT infringe on your day-to-day rights and privileges. It will NOT restrict your actions and activities.  It will NOT raise your taxes. But it will require you to be a willing participant and to respect and support all of our first-responders, law enforcement officers and those prosecutors and judges administering the judicial system.

3.This will be a focused effort with all actions from families, leaders and administrators at the local level to the Office of the President, seeking to take down criminal gangs, Mexican Cartel operatives and anyone associated with the transport, warehousing, production, distribution and sale of illegal drugs.

4. Upon publication of this Executive Order, every gang member is hereby designated a criminal guilty of a felony offense simply be being a gang member.

5. What is a “gang”?

• A group whose members share an identity, typically linked to a name, and often some other symbols.
• Members view themselves as a gang, and they are recognized by others as a gang.
• The group has some permanence and a degree of organization and leadership.
• The group is involved in some level of criminal activity.

This becomes the national definition.  No ambiguity, no soft-on-crime individual states, cities or communities.

6. The law:  it is illegal to be a member of an organization, whatever size, that is engaged in criminal activity. One does not have to physically engage in committing a crime (for example, selling illegal drugs), simply being a member of a gang that does it is, in and of itself, a crime. Being a gang member is a felony offence. If convicted, jail-time is hereby a mandatory sentence. We have to get specific about the law and its consistency among all the states.

7. Family involvement:  Across this country, tonight every family, particularly those with teenage youngsters, should have this conversation: Jimmy/Susan, if you are a member of a gang, as of today you are a criminal committing a federal felony offense and you are subject to being arrested, tried and sentenced to prison. The point being that at the dinner table within a few hours of signing this Executive Order there is focused initiative in tens of millions of homes across the entire nation and the 33,000 gang structures are under siege.

8. Human intelligence, Humint, will be the center of gravity for this campaign.  Definition: Center of Gravity can be a person, thing, circumstance or situation that is central to success of an operation or can cause it to fail.  There are an estimated 33,000 gangs in the U.S.  In order to take them down law enforcement must know who the members are, where they live and what criminal activities they are involved with. Certainly, there can and will be some surveillance involved in fact gathering.  But the bulk of the information will come from within the community.  People know who the gang members are and will be encouraged to share their knowledge.  But the bulk of the Humint will come from the members themselves. 

9. Amnesty: Every community will immediately set up and announce a short-term (weeks not months) amnesty program in which every gang member, cartel operative and drug dealer is offered the opportunity to make an appointment with law enforcement officials and in a confidentially recorded conversation denounce their membership, disclose the who/what/when/where facts about their organization and in exchange be offered amnesty from prosecution relative to past crimes in which they participated, with the exception of murder. The main objective of the interview is to gather all possible information about the gang’s leaders.  Acting on that information, the police should then arrest the leaders which will prompt the remaining members to apply for amnesty and effectively shut down the gang within days of activating this campaign.

At the end of the amnesty period, across the country the mass roundup of active gang members, cartel operatives and drug dealers will begin.

 10, Prosecutors and judges serve at the will of we-the-people they swore to protect.  They will use their power to the full extent of the law and if they choose to function outside the intent of this Executive Order, they should be removed and replaced.

11. Outside the bounds of this Executive Order, but still key to reestablishing law and order across the nation are two additional directives:

First, a too-often occurrence today when arresting an alleged criminal, is to discover they have a ridiculously lengthy “rap sheet” with a dozen or even dozens of prior arrests. Therefore, it is hereby directed that a third misdemeanor arrest will automatically be recorded and prosecuted as a felony crime. 

The second point has to do with minimum sentencing. If a gang member has been convicted of committing a crime and is sentenced, the minimum sentence will be two years in jail without parole just for being a gang member.  A gang member arrested with a gun will receive a minimum sentence of 4 years in jail without parole.

As the numbers of gangs and gang members diminish, there will be an impact on illegal drug distribution. The FBI and DEA must go with the flow, adjust plans and actions to take advantage of reduced foot soldiers to defeat drug importation, distribution and sale.

Sanctuary states and cities are not excluded from any of the above directives.

The objective of publishing this Executive Order is to dramatically and simultaneously launch the law-and-order campaign in millions of homes and in every community today. Tomorrow, actions should begin and will continue until the 33,000 gangs are gone from our communities.

Currently, the estimated 1.4 million American gang members are responsible for 48.9% of violent crimes, 42.9% of property crime,39.9% of drug sales and 13% of all homicides.  If we can get perhaps a million of them to accept amnesty in the next few weeks, the crime rates may be reduced to the point that our diminished police forces can effectively handle the remaining crime load.

The overall intent of this campaign is to create an enduring overarching culture of deterrence when it is time for teens to choose between law and order or a criminal street gang, they will think hard about the possibility of landing in jail for two years.

This must become the law-of-the-land.  No separate versions for the soft-on-crime individual states, cities or communities are authorized.

Logically, the Attorney General, Department of Justice, should take the lead for the following reasons: First of all, he/she is the existing senior cop in the country; no reason to create a new organization to do this. Additionally, two of the critical subordinate action organizations are already direct-reports to the Attorney General; they are, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

I request that every newspaper and news magazine publish this entire Executive Order at their earlies convenience. I want a couple hundred million Americans to have access to their own personal copy.

If this Executive Order, for any reason, becomes a partisan issue, we will be doing the American public a terrible disservice.

End of Executive Order.

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

PART seven, 2024 Campaign Platform

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending.

PART SIX Transform Congress and Cut Spending.
There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

PART SEVEN: TERMS AND TURM LIMITS:

CHANGE THE LENGTH OF EACH TERM, LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TERMS AND CHANGE AMERICA FOR THE BETTER:

January 20, 2017 while the nation watched the inauguration of President Trump, I recall one of the talking heads, filling up some air time during the parade, launching into a diatribe about what President Trump needed to do to keep from losing the House and/or Senate majorities during the 2018 midterms.

So what? The so what of it all is that every day we see national issues, security issues, economic issues, crisis issues that are all tainted, delayed and debated in light of what it will “mean for the midterms.”  The debate is too often not about what is best, or in some cases, what is absolutely necessary for the nation, but rather how it will impact the November midterm election results. Sad but true.

The unfortunate nature of politicians is that the next election is their top priority and everything else is a distant second.  We need to change the environment and hopefully it might change their behavior.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Electing 435 U.S. Representatives to the House every two years is outdated and unnecessary. Their collective campaigns cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It is an unfortunate fact of life that a huge amount of the Representatives’ term in office is spent raising money and campaigning for reelection. Raising money has its own huge drawback in that politicians can become beholden to the big donors and lobbyists; perhaps not in the nation’s best interest.

The advantages of a four-year term for Representatives are so obvious and make so much sense, that it should become a priority to get it changed. One would think the Representatives themselves would be wholeheartedly in favor of a four-year term.

THE PRESIDENCY:

Then there is the presidency; four-year terms have a number of disadvantages. One, our government is woefully deficient at long-term strategic planning and too many of the serious issues facing a president need a longer-range look than four years can provide.

Secondly, a newly elected president has the first year to get his legislative agenda worked. The second year is too often consumed with keeping or getting a majority in the House and Senate during the mid-term elections. Depending on the midterm election outcome, the president’s third year may or may not be productive. The fourth year is a washout. The president is either put in a lame-duck nonproductive status or he/she becomes a part-time president and a nearly full-time candidate running for reelection. None of this is good news.

A one-time six-year term as president would wipe away most of the disadvantages of the four-year term.

TERM LIMITS

And while that amendment to the Constitution is working, why not take on the issue of term limits. There is something about the Potomac water; the more of it a politician drinks the more power-hungry they can become. Four terms, 16 years, for Representatives and three terms, 18 years, for Senators seems about right. There is an old saying that applies to organizations, “change or die”. Change and new blood for Congress can only be a positive thing because the current system, and the politicians running it are not serving the nation well.

SUPRENE COURT

And while we are at it, the Supreme Court could do with a little update. It seems so untoward that millions of Americans and half the politicians sit around hoping some eighty-year-old Justice of the Supreme Court will become too infirmed to continue serving or even die in order for a sitting President to “stack the court.”

Because the Supreme Court has become so politicized, there is extreme pressure for some justices to remain on the bench no matter their age, health, personal desire or capacity to do the job required of them. “Appointed for life” is just not the best answer.

In recent decades the average years justices have served on the Supreme Court is around 25 years. Are they ALL absolutely in their prime? One could argue not. We can do better than that? One would think so.

The Supreme Court is too important to become a political football. It is not difficult to fix this and thereby turn the court over periodically by limiting the term of office to twenty years. In recent years the average age at appointment has been about 52 years, retirement at about age 72 seems very reasonable.

CONCLUSIONS:

Why do this? The founding fathers were perhaps the greatest gathering of minds at any time in world history. But they did not have a crystal ball and could not get it all right. That is why there are 27 amendments to the Constitution. It is not difficult to build a case for a couple more. It all comes down to value added for the three branches of government and we-the-people.

BOTTOM LINE:

Change or die; the current terms and lack of limits are not good for today’s America.

If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you.

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

PART EIGHT, 2024 Campaign Platform

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending

PART SIX Transform the Congress and Cut Spending

PART SEVEN Terms and Term Limits

Part EIGHT Universal Service for all

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

While there are ten crises listed in PART ONE, solutions to all of them are actually contained in eight essays; PART THREE has both education and race relations and PARTS FIVE and SIX cover cutting spending in great detail. So, PART EIGHT is the final essay in the series to transform America as a platform for the 2024 campaign.

PART EIGHT: UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA

BACKGROUND, THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON SERVICE: 

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

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

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

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

THREE, expand educational opportunities during military service and develop strategies to recruit and retain in high-demand occupations.

FOUR, expand civic educational programs in schools.

FIVE, significantly increase non-military service opportunities in order to create, “an expectation of service” by 2031.

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

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

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

ABOUT “CULTURE”:

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

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

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

The final Commission’s hearings were held by the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11, 2021, where their recommendations appeared to be well received by Senators of both parties. To my knowledge, nothing has happened.

THIS PROPOSAL IS A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR United Service for America, U.S.A.:

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

BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING BY DEFINING THE PROBLEM:

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

SIX PROBLEM AREAS:

These six youth-related issues will continue to plague this nation far into the future unless bold steps are taken now.

ONE, gangs:  The FBI reports, “there are some 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs with about 1.4 million members criminally active in the U.S. today. Youth gangs are the training ground for a life of crime.”

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

TWO, drop-outs and illiteracy: On average 7,000 students drop out every school day; 90% of them end up on welfare. Nationally, 68% of all males in prison do not have a high school diploma.

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

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

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

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

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

Given that background, the question before us is, should we have Universal Service for America?

In consideration of these six problem areas (gangs, drop-outs, obesity, culture, race and welfare), the better question is, are these problems in the process of being solved with or by other national programs?  The answer is an unequivocable NO.  Universal Service for America, or as it may become known as, the U.S.A. Program, can be a transformational undertaking and is therefore worth the effort to make it happen. It can become a “rite of passage” for 99 + % of Americans. 

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

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

CONCLUSIONS TO THIS POINT:

ONE: There are serious endemic youth-related problems that need to be solved.

TWO: With a historical success rate of zero, the U.S. government should not build and/or run the program.

HOW SHOULD THE U.S.A. PROGRAM BE ORGANIZED AND FUNDED? 

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

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

OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS:

 For the U.S.A. Program to be successful it must be based on and encompass, as a minimum, the following nineteen resolutions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continuing with the program’s operational underpinnings:

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

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

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

SEVEN, men and women participants will not cohabitate.

EIGHT, the majority will be stationed in urban areas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SIXTEEN, mandatory unannounced drug testing will be the norm.

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

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

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

PARTICIPATION NUMBERS for a 12-month, all-18-year-old program:

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

A TYPICAL U.S.A. PROGRAM DAY:

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

MORNING SCHEDULE:

Begin the day with mandatory physical training.

Then, gather in a classroom setting, in groups of about 25, with a volunteer instructor, and discuss elements of character development. Values are key drivers in our lives.  Our values motivate us, determine what we strive to become in both life and in the work place, determine how well we will fit into an organization.  Values are drivers in our decision making and set out moral compass. Character Development is value development; here are the building blocks:

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

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

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

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

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

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

AFTERNOON SCHEDULE:

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

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

GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES FOR U.S.A.: 

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

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

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

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA LEADERS IN THE FIELD:

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

OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS: 

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

CONCLUSIONS:

Universal Service is a missing link in America and desperately needed at this point in our history.

This program will be expensive but the resulting transformation will make it worthwhile.

BOTTOM LINE: 

Goodness has been a hallmark of our nation, the greatest on earth.  But factors are currently in-play that seriously challenge that goodness today.  There needs to be a time and place when all Americans can contemplate goodness and thereby plan to live a more fulfilling and productive life by being all they can be. That time is now and that place is as an 18-year-old participant in Universal Service for America. Goodness doesn’t just happen, we can and must make it happen. 

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

There is an additional 15 pages of information in the book FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA that deal with planning, phasing and operations of the U.S.A. Program.

If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you. And thanks to those of you who stayed with me through the solutions to these ten U.S. crises.  We-the-people can do this and transform America.

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

previous published article…….First expenditure listed in The Cares Act should read:

$10 million for “gender programs in Pakistan

PART Six, 2024 Campaign Platform

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

PART FIVE Transform the Executive Branch of Government and cut spending

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

PART SIX: TRANSFORM CONGRESS AND CUT SPENDING

BACKGROUND:

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 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.

Etc.

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 does 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?

Why has Congress become so continuously inept when it comes to responsible spending?  Simply stated, they do not have a set of established operational standards and

             any organization without standards is a failed organization.

Establish and enforce a set of simple standards and a lot of things in Washington can get fixed, quickly, including irrational spending of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, much of which is added to the national debt.   

However, keep in mind that change is a frightening concept to most organizations.  Fixing Congress will take courage and strong, sensible, insightful leadership. The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility.  Now is the time.  We just finished a fiscal year with $1.7 trillion in deficit spending; up 23% from the previous year.

$34 trillion in national debt is a frighting reality. But what is worse is the realization that no one in Congress is doing anything to shut down the deficit spending and continuous borrowing.  There are two ways to go about achieving real fiscal constraints. 

One, we have to realize that the president’s annual budget is the sum of what it takes to fund every branch and division in the massive Executive Branch bureaucracy.  We need to also realize that too much of that bureaucracy is outdated, unnecessary, redundant, providing no value-added and just needs to go away.  In Part five of this series, we addressed this problem with a solution to tear the U.S. Executive Branch apart piece by piece, rebuild it with elements that are actually providing value added and cut out hundreds of billions of dollars from the President’s budget each spring. But that project must wait for a president/vice president team of Republican fiscal conservatives; maybe 2024. 

The second way to cut spending is to change the way Congress operates.  Make it more efficient, more effective, more timely, more responsible.  Now is the time, right now with a new Speaker in the House of Representatives.  This can be Speaker Johnson’s greatest contribution, his legacy.  Certainly, it will be met with resistance but the American tax payers will welcome a simple, workable, inexpensive plan to cut spending rather than just keep saying, “we need spending cuts” as a sound bite and a headline.  Spending cuts should be a 2024 Republican Campaign Platform issue right now with every candidate headed for the White House or Congress talking about the solution to out-of-control spending.

FIX THE SYSTEM, TRANSFORM CONGRSSIONAL SPENDING

I am suggesting institutionalizing a set of seven new operational standards for Congress.  

Under the following plan, a small agency will be formed under the Inspector General (free from Congressional influence) inside the General Services Administration (an independent government organization) called the Congressional Legislation Standards Authority (CLSA) Their sole purpose will be to enforce these seven standards, to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation as explained below and to approve an annual budget on schedule/on time. 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.  The Congress has proven that it is incapable of successfully and efficiently administrating themselves.  The CLSA would be something akin to the very valuable oversight we see from the Congressional Budget Office.

Since 1975 the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the congressional budget process. Each year, the agency’s economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates for proposed legislation. Their 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 many laws cause some new Executive Branch 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, 5,593-page Covid-19 relief bill there were scores of organizations funded from this 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 5,593-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 process bills will get processed in one continuous process not to exceed 90-days.  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 continuously 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 life-span..

STANDARD NUMBER SEVEN, STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT: 

Every piece of legislation will be formatted with four specific sections and pages and appear on the CLSA website as follows:

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

CLSA, Section 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 sends this page out)

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 camel. 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 and over-spending.

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT, to include the president, should author a larger percentage of the bills than they do today.  Why?  Because they know the who, what, when, where, why and how details of their proposals and 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:

CLSA, Section 2, Legislative Intent

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

CLSA Intent:  ________________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. 

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

CLSA ,Section 3, Content 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:

CLSA, Section 4, The entire bill

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

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

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

• “$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.

• Under the above proposed CLSA-run program, we-the-people 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 5,593-page unread bill.  Accountability and transparency would have been front and center. The fact is, this $10 million nonsense would never have made it to the floor for a vote because visibility to the press and to 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.

• 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 and the check-is-in-the-mail.

• 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.

• Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this more disciplined approach to legislation could have the long-term impact of  building towards a future balanced-budget mindset.  

• 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 as noted earlier it will take great 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 8-month process from early February through the end of the current 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, traditionally 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:  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.

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. 

Resolution and reconciliation during April, May and June sounds reasonable.  But in fact, that is the period when congressional ineptitude begins to impact the Budget Resolution process because they choose to disregard protocols and standards. For example, in six of the seven fiscal years, 2014-2020, Congress never adopted a formal budget resolution at all.

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.

Failure to pass the appropriation bills by 30 September results in either passing continuing resolutions (CRs) or shutting down the government.  Congress has used CRs in 40 of the 44 fiscal years, 1976-2020. In FY 2013 a full-year CR covered 7 of the 12 budget appropriations. As of 2020 it has been 23 years since all of the appropriations bills were passed prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year.  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.

Continuing resolutions in the absence of a budget can waste billions of dollars. A new fiscal year budget will always drop obligations, programs and spending that are no longer needed or desired. Going forward into the new fiscal year, efficiency and effectiveness are hampered because of the absence of new fiscal year funding for essential new programs.

This has become so routine that Congress seems to treat this monumental failure as business as usual, as OK. Well, it is not OK. It is first of all against the law, The Budget Act of 1974. It is not fair to we-the-people who sent you there to do the peoples’ business and the first order of business is to have a budget.

On 18 January 2024 the House and Senate passed a third continuing resolution for the FY24 budget. To make this scenario even more pathetic, the president’s FY 2025 budget due to Congress on 5 February is now scheduled to be sent over on 11 March, thereby beginning the FY2025 budget process five weeks late.  Could this get any more pathetic?

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

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY and THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS (2 sections):

Section 1 is a standing annual directive to the Speaker of the House and the Leader of the Senate:

The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader in the Senate are required to publish by, 15 January of each year, as Section 2 of the CLSA Annual Budget Process memo, a Concept of Operations for the next fiscal year’s Congressional budget process. Their narratives will cover the who/what/when/where/why and how of the process in great detail, emphasizing firm suspense dates for completion of each phase leading to an approved budget by 30 September.

Section 2, two documents, one from the House Speaker and one from the Senate Leader to their respective Committee heads involved with the 12 Budget Authorizations.

Each of the leaders’ directives will include special timing considerations for an election year in that August/September will be campaign time for most members of Congress.

Each document will emphasize that milestones will be set and not broken.  Committee chairpersons will frequently be required to brief their senior leaders on their progress, problems, issues and likelihood of meeting their deadlines. They are called in-progress reviews, IPRs.  IPRs will be scheduled on a regular basis; for example, every two weeks leading up to the finish of a particular budget timing segment.

If committee work is behind schedule, the senior leaders will direct night and weekend work to ensure on-time results.

Each document is a directive to their respective committees who are directly involved in the budget process associated with the 12 budget appropriations.

Speaker of the House memo to Committee Chairpersons:

Senate Leader memo to Committee Chairpersons:

CONCLUSION:

It would be impossible to find any other existing organization as undisciplined and irresponsible as the U.S. Congress.  That indiscipline, irresponsibility and pathetic leadership ends up with a bottom line of fraud, waste and abuse of power every year.  We-the-people are footing the bill for this annual mess and the country is suffering from it. Any candidate running on a platform to help fix it will get the attention of voters.

BOTTOM LINE:

Adding standards and discipline to how Congress Works will undoubtedly save hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money every year.

Every candidate who is running for the White House or Congress right now should have, Fixing How Congress works on their Campaign Platform.

 In the book, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, see Chapter 5, TRANSFORM, CONGRESS INTO AN EFFECTIVEAND EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION for more details on how to implement this reform concept.

If you know someone running for national office right now, please send them a copy of this Campaign Platform proposal. Thank you.

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

(PART FIVE, 2024 Campaign Platform)

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

PART FOUR defined how to eliminate voter fraud.

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

PART FIVE, TRANSFORM THE EXECUIVE BRANCH: Make the federal government smaller, more focused, more efficient and more effective.  Additionally, the national debt in increasing at several billion dollars per day; this is the first step to institutionalize spending cuts.

GROUND TRUTH

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.

Some or all of that could apply today to the Departments in the Executive Branch of the federal government. This results in two major problems that desperately need to get fixed. 

First, a too-large organization is very expensive to maintain.  A more effective and efficient Executive Branch will be much smaller and less expensive. Every 1% reduction in end-strength equals about a $1.5 billion saving in annual salaries plus billions of dollars more in long-term retirement pay and benefits.

Second, and more importantly, the annual U.S. budget boils up out of this massive organization. Every government-funded program is maintained and sustained inside these bureaucracies.  These programs are this organization’s product.  General Motor’s product is vehicles; the Executive Branch’s product is taxpayer-supported programs.  The question is, what is the value added of those programs?  An in-depth review will undoubtedly find programs that have existed for decades, their original purpose no longer relevant, programs that sounded good at their inception but have failed in execution, programs to solve a problem that should have been the purview of state or local governments, programs initiated to solve a short-term problem but live on forever.  President Reagan summed up the problem with this statement, “Government is like a baby, an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”

MAKE EXECUTIVE BRANCH TRANSFORMTION A CRITICAL 2024 CAMPAIGN PLATFORM ISSUE:

The first question is, who should initiate and conduct the Executive Branch review?

Congressional oversight is one of the “implied” powers granted to Congress by the “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution. Congressional oversight is a key element of the system of checks and balances of power among the three branches of government. The main goals of Congressional oversight are to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse and protect rights and civil liberties. In this regard, Congress has failed miserably. Someone else has to step up and do this.

Therefore, the next president should fix the Executive Branch and that person should make this reform part of their campaign platform.

Beginning now, and extending through the 2024 general-election campaign, the Republican presidential candidates should make it clear that the priority for his/her vice president will be to lead the restructure process to its conclusion.

November 2024 through January 2025.The president/vice president-elect should concentrate their selection of Cabinet leaders and their deputies who understand organizations, who have successfully led large complex organizations, and who will lead the effort to re-think their mission and to restructure their organization to most effectively and efficiently achieve their mission while also cutting spending.

From inauguration day on through at least the summer of 2025 the Vice president will set up and execute the process. This will be difficult because we are talking about change, massive change, within each Executive Branch. We must recognize that for any large organization, especially one as large as the Executive Branches, change is very difficult. Fear of the unknown is a powerful human force, especially in government with an entrenched, layered bureaucracy that is stiff, stifling, introspective and, in many respects, self-serving.

The newly elected vice president will provide hands-on leadership from start to finish with periodic in-progress reviews provided to the President and we-the-people. This is a long and tedious process; there are no viable shortcuts to re-thinking, re-designing, and re-structuring large organizations and making them be all they can and should be. 

FIRST, during the last week in January 2025, the vice president should set up a senior Organization and Spending Task Force consisting of the deputies of all the departments, agencies, and commissions. They will be the change-agents and become the junkyard dogs of the federal government.  

SECOND, early February, 2025, define the end state and end date for the campaign. For example, in a formal announcement with the President and the task force members standing alongside, the VP could announce, “Over the next several months, or as long as it takes, our task force will look inside every organizational element of the Executive Branch.  We will assess their mission (is it relevant today), their structure (too many or too few people), layering (is it OK or dysfunctional), can the organization integrate vertically and horizontally efficiently and effectively on a day-to-day basis? Is the organization as a whole agile (able to deal with change as a matter of course) and is there overall value-added for the government and especially for the American people?”

THIRD, immediately begin execution. The process begins in every named organization by putting together a very detailed organization chart. That’s the visual for the task force and it provides an immediate sense of size, complexity, and layering.  Big government is layer after layer after layer, some of which produce nothing; they exist just to oversee what is being produced at the layers below.  Why the organization chart?  Because it allows the task force to begin the analysis and restructure at the bottom of the organization. One cannot reorganize and restructure top-down; to be successful it must be bottom-up. 

BOTTOM-UP FROM THE ORGANIZATION CHARTS:

Using the Department of Agriculture as an example, there are 65 different organizational elements that come under the headings of departments, agencies, councils, institutes, programs, foundations, services, authorities, offices-of, boards and facilities.  Inside them are departments, directorates, branches, sections, cells, and individual elements.  Every one of those becomes a “box” in the organization chart.  Each organizational box must list the name of the element, number of employees, and the grade of the leader, GS 10, 12, whatever.

Within the Department of Agriculture, for example, the Deputy Secretary, part of the VP’s senior task force, will form his/her own internal departmental task force. The Department Task Force’s first action will be to send out an internal memo to the leaders of every “box” to submit, in one week, a no-more-than-two-page report to the Deputy Secretary.  The report format should include, as a minimum these six elements:

1.A one or two-sentence mission statement that describes what it is that element collectively does; for example, “responsible for writing, executing, and enforcing Department Regulation 135, Beef Export Program, and reporting results quarterly to ………”

During the following week, the Department Task Force will begin a detailed review of every input report. Their job is to ask, do we need Dept Reg 135 any longer?  If so, could this be done with fewer people?  Could the same number of employees also be responsible for Dept Reg 246, Pork Export Program? Do we need the report quarterly? And most importantly, what is the value-added of that report and organizational element to the overall Agriculture Department’s mission?

Keep in mind that there are undoubtedly tens of thousands of worthless reports written every year by an entrenched bureaucratic mass that lives on forever sucking up tax dollars, stifling initiative, and being a roadblock to progress.

2.The report should describe the grade structure of all the employees in the box.

The Department task Force will look at the grade structure for each of the boxes in the organization chart.  Is it commensurate with the degree of complexity of the mission? Could two or more similar “boxes” be combined, perhaps scaled-down and led by this same leader (a span of control issue)?

3.Describe a typical work week; number of meetings, amount of travel, etc.  

This can reveal a lot about an organizational element and its leader.  Many meetings are just to fill up time, or are a daily social coffee clutch, or make the person in charge feel like he/she is actually “leading”.  Many are a colossal waste of time. If employees have time to attend too many meetings, they probably are not very busy to begin with. Is the travel critical to success, nice to have, or perhaps just to fill up the workweek? Travel is very expensive.

4.What laws and/or regulations guide that organization’s work? 

This is a critical element in the review.  Has this organization been acting out a scenario that is unnecessary or at least should better reside at the state or local level?

5.Include a list, in single sentences, of major accomplishments in the past twelve months.

The task force will then determine if the accomplishments are in line with the mission or are just doing busy work?

6.Finally, a short statement of value-added. For example, without us the Department would not/could not do the following………

The Departments’ Task Force reviews of the input from the bottom-up is all about policy, practices, process, grade structure commensurate with overall responsibility, span of control, layering, and value-added determination.  

There will be tremendous resistance in many, maybe most, departments.  There will need to be a heavy hand on the part of the president, VP, department heads and deputies. The President and VP will need to lead by example and downsize the White House staff as well.  When the Vice president routinely attends Departmental Task Force sessions, he/she will be grading their work and progress; are they tough enough, too tough, thorough enough, on the right track, or being overly protective of the status quo? The VP will constantly stress to the overall task force that the status quo is unacceptable. The VP will also be able to pick up strong-points and pass them along to other Departments as best practices. 

The leaders of the Executive Departments along with their deputies will attend, in mass, a monthly in-progress-review with the president and vice president where they will lay out their findings to date in front of the President and other Cabinet leaders. Invite the media to listen in.

Once the task force has worked its way up from the bottom, looking at every element, their individual mission, and value added, then and only then will they be capable of looking back and seeing how many subordinate elements are off track, irrelevant, unnecessary or even counterproductive.  They will then be capable of restructuring, re-aligning, re-tasking, reorganizing the subordinate elements to create an organization that is more focused, aligned, responsive, innovative, agile, and rid of pockets of resistance.

What must be emphasized here is the importance of the bottom-up review process.  As the task force works up from layer to layer on the organization chart, they will come to some conclusions about value added at each level. Having reached the top of the organization chart it is possible the Vice president’s senior task force could conclude that an entire department’s continued existence should be questioned.  A prime example is the Department of Education.   We know that education in America is a national disgrace and not getting better in spite of (or because of) the 4,400 employees and a 2024 budget of $90 billion, a $10.8 billion increase over 2023. Back in Part 3 of this series, Education and Race Relations Reform, a strong case was made for the elimination of the Federal Department of Education. 

This process may look tedious and time-consuming because it is.  But unless we begin at the bottom and unless we include every element, we will never achieve an acceptable level of success.

CONCLUSIONS:

The task forces must be especially mindful of the phrase, “we provide oversight.”That is a red flashing light that an organization does not, in and of itself, produce anything of value. They simply exist to grade papers, expand their purview, inhibit progress and expend tax dollars.  As President Reagan reminded us, “The most terrifying words in the English language are, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

During the process, it is important to not lose sight of the two-fold objectives.  First, the objective is NOT to reach some specific lower end-strength number of federal employees.  The objective is to rid the government of “boxes” in the organization charts that have no valueadded, they just exist because they have always been there.  The end state is an organization that is leaner, more focused, more efficient, more effective, and agile. The second objective is to end up with an organization that has a much smaller and more realistic annual budget.

Why do all of this work?  Two reasons:

One the most common attempts at downsizing, in my experience used numerous times over the past decades, have been to declare a hiring freeze or order an across-the-board, for example, ten percent personnel cut, neither of which make any sense nor achieve any lasting positive results. 

Second, what I have described above has never been done before.  We have just allowed the Executive Branch to grow without ever undertaking a necessary pruning process.

When completed, many positions, perhaps tens of thousands of them, will be eliminated. It will then take a couple years of shuffling the deck by the Office of Personnel Management to get folks reassigned or retired, but it is within the art of the possible and worth the effort. 

Let me remind you one more time, the president’s budget is the sum of what all of the departments, agencies, councils, institutes, programs, foundations, services, authorities, offices of, boards, and facilities believe they need to accomplish their mission.  When, perhaps tens of thousands of actions, regulations, programs, and policies are eliminated because they are outdated, unnecessary, and/or redundant, the budget requirement can in all probability be downsized by hundreds of billions of dollars.

There is also a states’ rights issues in all of this.  As the federal government grows, a natural outcome is that they over-reach into areas that are better and more effectively handled at the local and state levels.  Federal over-reach tends to result in a one-size-fits-all approach to problem-solving and creates a stifling regulation-nation.

BOTTOM LINE:

Everyone is talking about cutting spending but no one in recent memory has done anything about it. Making it happen is a 2-step process.  This is step one.  The second step is coming soon when we talk about how to “fix” Congress.

Getting spending and hence debt under control will resonate with the American people and be a very positive undertaking as opposed to the current tax-and-spend economic baseline of the Democrat Party.  

President Reagan got it right when he reminded us that:

“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.”

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”

The Republican Party needs to embrace this concept of operations of transforming the Executive Branch of government as a critical Campaign Platform issue. Embrace it and talk about it.

In the book, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, see Chapter 4, TRANSFORM THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT, for more details on how to implement this reform concept.

If you know a candidate running for office, please pass this on to them.  Thank you.

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

(PART FOUR, 2024 Campaign Platform)

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

PART THREE provided a concept that will fix education and race relations.

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and has no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

PART FOUR, VOTER FRAUD.

 The 2024 election has the potential to be a threat to America.  Mail-in ballots, drop boxes, ballot harvesting and out of date error-ridden voter registration rolls will be in-play and threaten, as a minimum, to further divide the nation and as a worse-case scenario further crumble a critical foundational element that has, until recently, set us apart and above from most of the countries of the world, that is, free and honest elections.    

There are two issues here. One is making this subject a part of the 2024 Republican Campaign Platform.  But even before that, Republicans need to present to Congress a simple (just a few pages) bill that will immediately reboot the voter registration rolls maintained by all the states. 

THE PROBLEM:

The Covid pandemic in 2020 unleashed a tsunami of mail-in voting; understandable. The problem is that the validity of the mail-in ballot is directly linked to the validity of the mail-out ballot. Voter registration rolls are the source of addressing the mail-out ballots and across the country the voter registration rolls are in pathetic condition involving millions of “voters.”

FACTS SUPPORTING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT:

Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S. had a 2022 population of 9,861,224 residents. So far so good, it’s just a big number.  Of those 9.9 million folks, about 4.3 million of them are supposedly registered voters. OK so far, what could possibly go wrong? During the 2022 election cycle L.A. County election officials mailed out about 5.7 million vote-by-mail ballots to those 4.3 million registered voters.

September, 2021 Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 37 making California the eighth state in the nation with a law on the books requiring every voter (that is, voter name on the registration rolls) to be mailed a ballot.

The states are in charge of their voting rules which is a good news/bad news situation. States’ rights is a good thing.  When taken to an extreme it can be bad, harmful and out of control.  There are two distinct voting processes in play going into the 2024 election cycle:

One, though all states offer some form of voting by mail, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washinton state and Washington, D.C., now mandate that every registered voter be mailed a ballot ahead of an election by default; it’s called all-mail voting.

The second system in play is request-required mail-in ballot systems, traditionally known as absentee voting. It requires eligible voters to initiate the process of receiving a mail-in ballot. Dozens of states allow voters to mail in their ballots without specifying why they are doing so, but several states, mostly in the South, require voters to provide an “excuse” for mailing in their ballots, forcing more people to vote in person at polling places.

All of the above could be OK if, and this is the big IF, the voter registration rolls were up to date (no dead people), correct (actually living at the recorded address) and are in fact eligible to vote (U.S. citizens). 

Fact: across the nation, voter registration rolls need to be correct if mail-in voting is going to be free of potential massive voter fraud.

The mail-out and mail-in voting system has one huge hole in it that can lead directly to voter fraud.  The hole has to do with ballot verification.  If there is no verifying number (a voter’s voter ID number, a voters “real ID” number or a voter’s social security number, all that remains is to attempt to verify the voters’ signature.  That is a subjective process and each individual task is time consuming and somewhere between difficult and impossible.  From a timing standpoint it is likely impossible to deal with the mass of ballots arriving at the voting stations near election day. 

When there are more names on the county and state voter registration rolls (the source of mail-out) than there are eligible voters in that jurisdiction, then you know there is a train wreck about to happen.  Here is a snapshot of the states and counties contributing to the problem. No need to read it, just scan down to get a sense of the magnitude of the problem.

STATES AND COUNTIES WITH VOTER REGISTRATION RATES EXCEEDING 100%

OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS

Alabama: Lowndes County (130%); Macon County (114%); Wilcox (113%); Perry County (111%); Madison County (109%); Hale County (108%); Marengo County (108%); Baldwin (108%); Greene County (107%); Washington County (106%); Dallas County (106%); Choctaw County (105%); Conecuh County (105%); Randolph County (104%); Shelby County (104%); Lamar County (103%); Autauga County (103%); Clarke County (103%); Henry County (103%); Monroe County (102%); Colbert County (101%); Jefferson County (101%); Lee County (100%); Houston County (100%); Crenshaw County (100%)

*Alaska: Statewide (111%)

Arizona: Santa Cruz County (107%); Apache County (106%)

*Arkansas: Newton County (103%)

Colorado: Statewide (102%); San Juan County (158%); Dolores County (127%); Jackson County (125%); Mineral County (119%); Ouray County (119%); Phillips County (116%); Douglas County (116%); Broomfield County (115%); Elbert County (113%); Custer County (112%); Gilpin County (111%); Park County (111%); Archuleta County (111%); Cheyenne County (111%); Clear Creek County (110%); Teller County (108%); Grand County (107%); La Plata County (106%); Summit County (106%); Baca County (106%); Pitkin County (106%); San Miguel County (106%); Routt County (106%); Hinsdale County (105%); Garfield County (105%); Gunnison County (105%); Sedgwick County (104%); Eagle County (104%); Larimer County (104%); Weld County (104%); Boulder County (103%); Costilla County (103%); Chaffee County (103%); Kiowa County (103%); Denver County (103%); Huerfano County (102%); Montezuma County (102%); Moffat County (102%); Arapahoe County (102%); Jefferson County (101%); Las Animas County (101%); Mesa County (100%)

*Florida: St. Johns County (112%); Nassau County (109%); Walton County (108%); Santa Rosa County (108%); Flagler County (104%); Clay County (103%); Indian River County (101%); Osceola County (100%)

*Georgia: Bryan County (118%); Forsyth County (114%); Dawson County (113%); Oconee County (111%); Fayette County (111%); Fulton County (109%); Cherokee County (109%); Jackson County (107%); Henry County (106%); Lee County (106%); Morgan County (105%); Clayton County (105%); DeKalb County (105%); Gwinnett County (104%); Greene County (104%); Cobb County (104%); Effingham County (103%); Walton County (102%); Rockdale County (102%); Barrow County (101%); Douglas County (101%); Newton County (100%); Hall County (100%)

*Indiana: Hamilton County (113%); Boone County (112%); Clark County (105%); Floyd County (103%); Hancock County (103%); Ohio County (102%); Hendricks County (102%); Lake County (101%); Warrick County (100%); Dearborn County (100%)

Iowa: Dallas County (115%); Johnson County (104%); Lyon County (103%); Dickinson County (103%); Scott County (102%); Madison County (101%); Warren County (100%)

*Kansas: Johnson County (105%)

Maine: Statewide (101%); Cumberland County (110%); Sagadahoc County (107%); Hancock County (105%); Lincoln County (104%); Waldo County (102%); York County (100%)

Maryland: Statewide (102%); Montgomery County (113%); Howard County (111%); Frederick County (110%); Charles County (108%); Prince George’s County (106%); Queen Anne’s County (104%); Calvert County (104%); Harford County (104%); Worcester County (103%); Carroll County (103%); Anne Arundel County (102%); Talbot County (100%)

*Massachusetts: Dukes County (120%); Nantucket County (115%); Barnstable County (103%)

*Michigan: Statewide (105%); Leelanau County (119%); Otsego County (118%); Antrim County (116%); Kalkaska County (115%); Emmet County (114%); Berrien County (114%); Keweenaw County (114%); Benzie County (113%); Washtenaw County (113%); Mackinac County (112%); Dickinson County (112%); Roscommon County (112%); Charlevoix County (112%); Grand Traverse County (111%); Oakland County (110%); Iron County (110%); Monroe County (109%); Genesee County (109%); Ontonagon County (109%); Gogebic County (109%); Livingston County (109%); Alcona County (108%); Cass County (108%); Allegan County (108%); Oceana County (107%); Midland County (107%); Kent County (107%); Montmorency County (107%); Van Buren County (107%); Wayne County (107%); Schoolcraft County (107%); Mason County (107%); Oscoda County (107%); Iosco County (107%); Wexford County (106%); Presque Isle County (106%); Delta County (106%); Alpena County (106%); St Clair County (106%); Cheboygan County (105%); Newaygo County (105%); Barry County (105%); Gladwin County (105%); Menominee County (105%); Crawford County (105%); Muskegon County (105%); Kalamazoo County (104%); St. Joseph County (104%); Ottawa County (103%); Clinton County (103%); Saginaw County (103%); Manistee County (103%); Lapeer County (103%); Calhoun County (103%); Ogemaw County (103%); Macomb County (103%); Missaukee County (102%); Eaton County (102%); Shiawassee County (102%); Huron County (102%); Lenawee County (101%); Branch County (101%); Osceola County (101%); Clare County (100%); Arenac County (100%); Bay County (100%); Lake County (100%)

*Missouri: St. Louis County (102%)

*Montana: Petroleum County (113%); Gallatin County (103%); Park County (103%); Madison County (102%); Broadwater County (102%)

*Nebraska: Arthur County (108%); Loup County (103%); Keya Paha County (102%); Banner County (100%); McPherson County (100%)

Nevada: Story County (108%); Douglas County (105%); Nye County (101%)

*New Jersey: Statewide (102%); Somerset County (110%); Hunterdon County (108%); Morris County (107%); Essex County (106%); Monmouth County (104%); Bergen County (103%); Middlesex County (103%); Union County (103%); Camden County (102%); Warren County (102%); Atlantic County (102%); Sussex County (101%); Salem County (101%); Hudson County (100%); Gloucester County (100%)

*New Mexico: Harding County (177%); Los Alamos County (110%)

New York: Hamilton County (118%); Nassau County (109%); New York (103%); Rockland County (101%); Suffolk County (100%)

*Oregon: Sherman County (107%); Crook County (107%); Deschutes County (105%); Wallowa County (103%); Hood River County (103%); Columbia County (102%); Linn County (101%); Polk County (100%); Tillamook County (100%)

Rhode Island: Statewide (101%); Bristol County (104%); Washington County (103%); Providence County (101%)

*South Carolina: Jasper County (103%)

South Dakota: Hanson County (171%); Union County (120%); Jones County (116%); Sully County (115%); Lincoln County (113%); Custer County (110%); Fall River County (108%); Pennington County (106%); Harding County (105%); Minnehaha County (104%); Potter County (104%); Campbell County (103%); McPherson County (101%); Hamlin County (101%); Stanley County (101%); Lake County (100%); Perkins County (100%)

Tennessee: Williamson County (110%); Moore County (101%); Polk County (101%)

Texas: Loving County (187%); Presidio County (149%); McMullen County (147%); Brooks County (117%); Roberts County (116%); Sterling County (115%); Zapata County (115%); Maverick County (112%); Starr County (110%); King County (110%); Chambers County (109%); Irion County (108%); Jim Hogg County (107%); Polk County (107%); Comal County (106%); Oldham County (104%); Culberson County (104%); Kendall County (103%); Dimmit County (103%); Rockwall County (102%); Motley County (102%); Parker County (102%); Hudspeth County (101%); Travis County (101%); Fort Bend County (101%); Kent County (101%); Webb County (101%); Mason County (101%); Crockett County (101%); Waller County (100%); Gillespie County (100%); Duval County (100%); Brewster County (100%)

Vermont: Statewide (100%)

Virginia: Loudoun County (116%); Falls Church City (114%); Fairfax City (109%); Goochland County (108%); Arlington County (106%); Fairfax County (106%); Prince William County (105%); James City County (105%); Alexandria City (105%); Fauquier County (105%); Isle of Wight County (104%); Chesterfield County (104%); Surry County (103%); Hanover County (103%); New Kent County (103%); Clarke County (103%); King William County (102%); Spotsylvania County (102%); Rappahannock County (102%); Albemarle County (101%); Stafford County (101%); Northampton County (101%); Poquoson City (100%); Frederick County (100%)

Washington: Garfield County (119%); Pend Oreille County (112%); Jefferson County (111%); San Juan County (108%); Wahkiakum County (108%); Stevens County (103%); Pacific County (103%); Clark County (102%); Island County (102%); Klickitat County (102%); Thurston County (102%); Lincoln County (101%); Whatcom County (100%); Asotin County (100%)

*West Virginia: Mingo County (104%); Wyoming County (103%); McDowell County (102%); Brooke County (102%); Hancock County (100%).

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT:

Right now, only a few months from the election, we seem to be in a state of expecting the worst and hoping for the best.  Considering the potential downside of contested election results throughout the country, doing nothing is distasteful, irresponsible and cowardly.

Having defined the base of the voter fraud problem as the pathetic state of voter registration rolls throughout the country, while not interfering with states’ rights to define their election processes, the federal government should pass a law right now that mandates two things.  First, as of 1 July, 2024 every voter registration roll in every state will become null and void.  Secondly every eligible voter who wishes to vote in 2024 must reregister between 1 July and 5 November, 2024; election day. Simply stated, we desperately need a one-time, 100% reboot of the voter registration system. 

The law will then go on to specify how the voter will go about proving in person that they are in fact, an eligible voter.

THE REAL ID ACT 2005:

In accordance with that law (finally) on May 7, 2025, U.S. travelers must be REAL ID compliant to board domestic flights in the U.S. 

Secure driver’s licenses and personal ID cards are a vital component of our national security framework. The REAL ID Act enacted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.” Every state is required by this federal law to provide the facilities capable of providing REAL ID drivers licenses or personal ID cards.  The applicable parts of that law are:

(1) The person’s full legal name.

(2) The person’s date of birth.

(3) The person’s gender.

(4) The person’s driver’s license or identification card number; critical.

(5) A digital photograph of the person.

(6) The person’s address of principle residence.

(7) The person’s signature.

(8) Physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes.

(9) A common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements.

(10) An expiration date.

Does anyone believe we should have anything less to prove that we are eligible to vote?

As millions of Americans already know, when you appear to get the REAL ID, you must have in your possession proof of all the above information; birth certificate, U.S. passport, social security card, a current bill addressed to you at your legal address, etc.

Here is how the existing REAL ID law can be used for the voter registration reboot. At some point after 1 July 2024, every eligible voter will appear at a voting office in their area or download their REAL ID data onto an online application form that can be mailed to their local election office. The name, address, expiration date and most importantly the number on the driver’s license or personal ID will be entered into the new state voter registration data base. 

It is the number on the ID that will make voter fraud very difficult.  As part of this new voter fraud law, every single ballot, either mail-in or in-person voting will have a number on it; a REAL ID number, a Voter ID number if required by that state or a social security number. Every single ballot will have a number on it that directly links it to one eligible voter.  Period.

This new law, let’s call it SECURE THE 2024 ELECTION ACT, will also specify that every voting machine in the nation will be updated to reject any ballot that does not contain a voter number, that the number corresponds to a particular individual whose name and address is on the ballot and that the number has not been previously used in that election cycle. 

Under this system, part of the on-going process with the voter registration roll is that upon reaching an expiration date, that person will be dropped from the rolls.  Also, each time a license or ID is renewed, that data will be automatically forwarded to the state voter registration to put that individual back on the voter rolls. On a continuous basis, this cleans out the dead voters.

THE PERSON WHO DOES NOT WANT TO GET A REAL ID BUT DOES WANT TO VOTE.

The SECURE THE 2024 ELECTION ACT will provide for in-person election day voter registration (to include early in-person voting dates).  That voter must present the same documentation required for a REAL ID and present it at the voting venue.  The documentation must include a Social Security card and the social security number will become the voter number used on the ballot.

CONCLUSIONS:

What this all boils down to is this question; are eligible citizens at least patriotic enough that they will make the same effort for the right to vote that they would make for eligibility to get on a U.S. airliner?

Biden, the VP and loyal Democrats across the county have called voter ID “racist and discriminatory.”  That statement, implying that minorities are incapable of getting a Real ID is , in and of itself, racist. 

Whether successful voter fraud helps a democrat or republican candidate is not the issue. The issue is that trusting that our voting system is open and honest safeguards one of the key foundational elements of our great nation and must never be compromised or doubted.

BOTTOM LINE:

This law, SECURE THE 2024 ELECTION ACT, can/should be an easy, quick fix to offset what could/might end up being an election that completely crumbles one of the most sacred foundational elements of this country; free and honest elections.

The basis for this new law is already on the books, THE REAL ID ACT.  The states are already performing the functions to produce IDs for eligible voters. Tens of millions of Americans already have a Real ID. All that is needed is a requirement to reboot the voter registration rolls during 2024. 

Note to subscribers:  If everyone who believes this will be a positive move sends a copy to their Congressperson, perhaps one of them will take the concept and run with it. Thank you.

In the book, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA, see Chapter 3, FIX THE VOTER REGISTRATION SYSTEM, for a few more details on how to implement this reform concept.

If you know a candidate for office, please pass this on to them.  Thank you.

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

(PART THREE, 2024 Campaign Platform)

The PART ONE essay provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace.

PART TWO provided for a simple fix to the illegal immigration crisis.

There are ten current crises that can and should be part of the 2024 Campaign Platform but the Republican National Committee has not published a Platform since 2016 and have no intention of doing so until at least July of this year.  Too late, we needed it yesterday!

FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBLEM:

• “Education is the wellspring from which a nation ascends … or the quagmire into which it sinks.  Education is everything.”  Michael Russell

• The U.S. is becoming increasingly more functionally illiterate. Covid was a setback in terms of the numbers of K-12 students who are not proficient in various disciplines; but results from Covid are an anomaly in an ongoing national education crisis.

• 20% of U.S. students do not graduate high school.

• Almost 2,000 high schools across the US graduate less than 60% of their students.

• In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes.

• Of those graduating high school, over 20% are unable to pass the test to enter the U.S. military because they are functionally illiterate.

• On average, 7,000 students across the country drop out of school every school day.

• Average U.S. annual spending per public school student is over $14,000 in 2023.  That is about 34% higher than the average of the other 37 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.

• Measured results from the National Assessment of Education Progress, NAEP, tell us that more than 50% of 4^th, 8^th and 12^th graders are not proficient in math and reading. 

• Education will not get fixed by the federal and state governments’ bureaucratic masses and top-down over-regulation. “If we always do what we have always done we will always get what we always got”

Let’s define the problems and then set down an outline candidates can campaign on to fix these two problems and thereby transform America.  

Problem # 1, race relations and education are stuck: There is no definitive measure of where we are with respect to race relations in this country.  But, events over the past few years tell us it is not good.  In the absence of data to tell us otherwise we can assume we are at least stuck and not getting any better. Additionally, our world rankings in education tell us we are also stuck in a place we do not want to be. We can fix this.

Problem # 2, has to do with the existing culture:  Culture is a powerful and pervasive force in every organization and every organization, no matter how large or small, has a culture. Culture is an organization’s personality; caring, hateful, fast, energetic, visionary, risk-taking, vengeful, etc.  We can and must fix our nation’s culture of blame and hatred. 

Problem #3, is about what kids learn: Babies 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 streets.  We simply have to change what the children learn.

Problem #4, top-down programs do not work: The federal government has a horrible record in trying to run things.  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.  

Problem # 5, students get behind:  Research tells us that every day 7000 students across this country drop out of school while others are allowed to graduate from high school functionally illiterate. The principal reason they drop out is because they get hopelessly behind. Once behind they get progressively worse every year.  

SOLUTIONS: Do two things, provide character education and standards-based education.

CHANGE THE CULTURE WITH CHARACTER EDUCATION.

This proposed concept of operations will be executed in a decentralized manner at the county/city level across the nation.  There will be no bureaucracies involved, no Federal or State funding requirements and the character education classes will be taught by volunteers.  It’s essentially free. 

Over time, this campaign will reestablish a value base in America that supports a culture of ACCOUNTABILITY, TRUST AND RESPECT. Transforming America is within the art of the possible; I lived it day-to-day as it happened in a large organization, the U.S. Army.  The concept is directly transferable to the whole of the United States.  

This program is called Campaign Home Room. Execution includes all 60 million elementary and secondary students, K-12, participating in a Home Room class at 0800 every day for about 20 minutes for 13 school-years with volunteer instructors.  They will discuss values and character and it will be imprinted on the soul of every youngster in the United States.

Question, do you know an Eagle Scout who spent 10 years in the Scout program or someone who spent 6, 8 or 10 years in The First Tee program?  Most people know at least one.  OK, how many of those Eagle Scouts or First Tee kids that you know also dropped out of school?  The answer is probably zero. I have asked these questions of groups during many presentations of this concept.  I have yet to get a hand raised on the school dropout issue.  Both are character building programs.

What we need to do is figure out why those particular youngsters did not drop out and then find a way to give every student in this country a dose of that same medicine. Campaigning candidates need to explain and sell the value added of character education and standards-based education.  America is looking for help and this will do it. Transform America one kid at a time.

Why do millions of kids drop out and why do they graduate functionally illiterate?  Because they got behind a little bit in fourth grade, more in the fifth, more in sixth.  At some point, they are near the bottom of their class, frustrated, embarrassed, ridiculed by their peers and they give up and drop out or get passed on by the system until they “graduate” with no skills and little hope. 

In round numbers, here is the audience the candidates will be talking about:

• 142,000 schools
• 180 million adults with children under age 18
• 60 million K-12 students
• 4.5 million teachers

HOME ROOM: Reinstitute Home Room in every school.  Home Room is a forgotten piece of Americana.  Home Room is the center of gravity for character education.  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.

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 come 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.

They will get to know each other like brothers and sisters.  They will have deep feelings and respect for their Home Roommates.  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.  A game changer.  Their Home Roommates will become their “gang.”

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.

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 2.4 million Home Room classes in session every school day. 

Just imagine the impact Campaign Home Room can have with 60 million youngsters standing every morning with their hand on their heart saying the Pledge of Allegiance and having 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?

How do we find 2.4 million volunteers?  The essence of Campaign Home Room is decentralized execution.  Each school Principal will be responsible for finding a handful of volunteers and that should not be a problem.  For example, there are approximately 66 million Baby Boomers retiring at a rate of about 11,000 per day and many are looking for something interesting, meaningful, and challenging to do in retirement. Retirees bring a wealth of knowledge and experience for the mentoring of youngsters. 

Personal experience: I was asked to give a 20-minute talk on this subject at a Wednesday-evening church dinner.  About 80 attendees.  Following was an enthusiastic Q & A.  A week later the paster called and said there was a lot of discussion around the church and if we had a character education program in our local schools he has, “over 300 volunteers ready to begin.” America will answer the call. 

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. 

There is proof of concept that comes from The First Tee, a 30-year-old national program that does character building while teaching the kids how to play golf.  In an independent four-year study, 100% of The First Tee participants identified school as a setting in which the character training transferred positively to the classroom.

A school board near where I live embraced the local First Tee program and had all of their 4^th grade students attend an hour per week of the First Tee character training.  The teachers I later talked to admitted not being supportive until within just two weeks’ time they could sense and see changes; more positive, more attentive, more polite, etc. The teachers asked for the program to be extended and expanded.

IMPROVED RACE RELATIONS:

While our children are currently learning hate and disrespect, Campaign Home Room will supplant that with a positive curriculum of accountability, trust and respect taught and discussed in Home Room and carried forward to the classroom, playground, sports field, streets and home. The kids will transform America.

STANDARDS-BASED INSTRUCTION, the second fix for education:

Millions of students across America are dropping out or graduating functionally illiterate.

An organization without standards is a failed organization.  An organization without accountability is a failed organization. Our education system is a failed organization.  We can fix it.

Every August a fifth-grade teacher should have a reasonable expectation that his or her new students will have achieved what is expected of a fourth-grade graduate.  Without specified standards for end of year grade four, some students will inevitably pass on to the fifth grade deficient in math, for example.  Once behind, it is more likely that they will fall further behind each succeeding year until such time, usually in high school, that student will feel so hopelessly behind they will take the only alternative they foresee……drop out of school and statistically become a burden on society.  

Falling behind in class is an exponential threat to a successful academic career that most cannot overcome.  For example, The National Assessment of Education Progress, NAEP, also referred to as America’s Report Card regularly tests students across the nation to determine their proficiency levels in 4^th, 8^th and 12^th grades. Last years’ results show 67% of 4^th graders are not proficient in math and the 8^thgraders are 75% nonproficient showing the continued degradation in performance.   

But, even if standards are in place, if schools are depending on end-of-year testing to provide feedback on teaching results that creates an enormous almost insoluble problem.  Once discovered there is no time to catch up; the student just gets passed on and their deficiency multiplies through the years.

The concept for applying standards and accountability to education is simple and makes the teaching game-plan simple to define. It begins with the identification of an end state standard for a particular time period.  For example, there should be a standard for the end of first semester fourth grade math.  Given that standard the teacher will then develop a week-by-week lesson plan to achieve that end standard with every student.  Teach to a standard, then test.  Teach to the next level, then test again.  And so it goes week after week for 13 years, K-12.  The concept is simple and there will be no need for hundreds of pages of regulations, frequent recurring reports, no need for legions of bureaucrats providing oversight and requirements for national testing.

When a student does poorly on a weekly quiz, he/she is behind.  There must be rapid reaction policies in place to get that student caught up before moving on to more difficult material; after school instruction, volunteer tutors standing by, parent help, etc.

ESTABLISHING STANDARDS:

 It is not difficult; it can be done quickly and does not require any bureaucrats, regulations or tax dollars to do it. Here are the steps to take, for example, at the State level: 

The governor could set up a one-month summer session. He/she will invite selected teachers and Principals to a working session to establish education standards.

On day one there will be a meeting of three experienced outstanding Kindergarten teachers and three equally outstanding elementary school Principles.  Their task is to define what every Kindergarten student should achieve academically by school year end; that is, the end state standard. Having done that, they will then outline, in general terms, what to achieve during each of the six-week intervals on the way to the end state. That’s it, they are done.  The kindergarten standards are set.  Every elementary school Principal and kindergarten teacher in the state will then work to achieve that standard.

Three especially selected first-grade teachers and three elementary Principles will have set in and observed the day-one session with the kindergarten teachers and will have a clear understanding of what the students will have achieved upon graduation from kindergarten.  Then on day two, they will follow the same scenario to define the standards for end of year, first grade. 

This scenario will be repeated through grade five so that in just six days the elementary standards can be set for K-5. 

The middle school standards for individual subjects (math, science, English, history, etc.) will be worked the same way, each beginning by understanding the end state from the previous grade.

The standards for high school will be determined using the same procedures.

This work should be easily accomplished within 4-6 weeks.  Contrast this with a scenario if the federal or state Department of Education was tasked to define the standards.  There would undoubtedly be a contract let for a comprehensive multi-year study that would cost tens of millions of dollars and would result in a thousand-page document of bureaucratic nonsense.  That is just the way big government does business, making them habitually part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

The United States will no longer be ranked 20^th, 30^th or 40^th in education in the world. 

In order to achieve the standards every year, every class, every teacher the teaching methodology is a simple one; teach/test, teach/test, teach/test.  In any other system, how are you going to know when a student gets behind?  Remember, the solution to the drop-out problem is to not let students get behind. 

EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY:     

Education without accountability is a failed system.  So where does accountability fit into this equation? 

The Principal must be held accountable for aligning every school year start point with the end state standard from the previous year.  The Principal will have to review, in detail, the lesson plan for every teacher, every class, every grade.  After all, isn’t that what the Principal is supposed to do? 

Every teacher must be held accountable for building a lesson plan to achieve the standard and not let the students fall behind in route to the end state.

Every teacher must be held accountable for using the weekly teach/test methodology and then following up with parents of a student who has fallen behind.

Parents are advised that they are going to be held accountable for weekend work if their son or daughter gets behind.

Finally, the students.  They are going to get a heavy dose of accountability during their Home Room character instruction.  As accountability begins to be a way of life for them, the entire process become easy and second nature.  

What will happen with this process is a complete transition of the education culture in America. A culture of accountability will supplant that of blame which exists today and restricts all possibilities of moving forward.

THE POWER OF THE CHARACTER CURRICULUM:

Here is what results from each of the Character Curriculum subjects:

Accountability: Accountable students do not resort to blame.

Students steeped in commitment, confidence, perseverance, punctuality and responsibility do not skip school, fall behind or drop out.

Trust and respect:  Students who are deeply rooted in trust and respect will strike down bullying and are unlikely to become racially bigoted adults. 

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

Honesty, morality and integrity will guide students to become life-long upstanding citizens.

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

Humility: 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. 

Self-respect and morality: 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 dependable. 

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

CONCLUSIONS:

Education in America has become a disgrace. 

The education system can be fixed with two simple initiatives, character education and standards-based instructions.  And it is free.

BOTTOM LINE:

The Department of Education with its bureaucratic mass, rules, regulations and billions in spending should be eliminated. 

Implementing the above concept of operations will fix education and race relations for generations to come.

Just for a moment imagine, across this country, 60 million K-12 youngsters in 2.4 million Home Room classes at 8 o’clock every morning in every school in America being taught and mentored by 2.4 million volunteers on the subject of character.  Campaign Home Room is within the art of the possible and “we-the-people”, not we the government, can make it happen and change America.

See Chapter 1 of FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA for a few more details on how to implement this education and race relations reform concept.

If you know of a candidate for office, please pass this on to them.  Thank you.

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

(PART TWO, 2024 Campaign Platform)

The PART ONE essay, provided a concept of operations for establishing lasting world peace. Now let’s turn inward to solve the most egregious, deliberate policy any president has ever inflicted on our national security; open borders. 

(But before we get into PART TWO, just a reminder from the previous essay. There has for decades been an election-year document known as the Republican Campaign Platform, which is supposed to, “outline the Republican Party’s official principles, policy stances, and priorities.” THE LAST REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN PLATFORM WAS PUBLISHED JULY, 2016)

OK, PART 2, IMMIGRATION, WHAT WE KNOW OR AT LEAST IS MOST LIKELY TRUE:

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 46 million people living in the U.S. were born outside the U.S.

• Cartels have exploited Biden’s disastrous border policies to create one of the largest human trafficking and smuggling operations in the world.

• Unaccompanied minors create a tremendous human resource issue for border patrol. They housed, fed, clothed, transported, supervised and relocated over 130,000 children in FY 22 at about $8,776 per child.

• The word is out around the world, you can come to America illegally, there is no border.

• The number of illegals entering the U.S. has averaged 8,584 per day since Biden took office.

• “Got aways”, those who do not voluntarily check in with Border Patrol, do not want to be caught because they are likely criminals, drug dealers, gang members, cartel operatives, human traffickers or terrorists.

• Imported drugs, mostly through Mexico are killing, on average, about 300 young Americans per day on Biden’s watch.

• Branden Judd, National Border Patrol Council President, in an interview made four important points you will not hear about on most main-stream-media: 

1) “During January, 2022, 2,206 pounds of fentanyl was seized on the southern border”.

            2) “If we seize 5% of the drugs crossing the border, we are very lucky.” 

3) “90% of our Border Patrol resources are performing administration duties every day.”

4) “For example, in a 150-mile crossing area we have only four agents on patrol.”

• The Biden administration’s unspoken/unwritten policy on immigration is pure and simple open borders. While it is a huge and growing national security issue, and an embarrassment in the eyes of the rest of the world, it is, first and foremost, the most despicable deliberate national program any president has led in modern U.S. history.  It is the epitome of the democrat programs to develop and nurture identity groups, enable them with disincentivized federal cradle-to-grave entitlements and in doing so develop a solid recurring voting bloc. Shameful.

If the Republican Party was to brain-storm a possible 2024 campaign plan to clean up the illegal immigration mess, it might look something like this:

1. Institute a policy that will voluntarily cause the mases of illegals to remain home, forever.

2.Free up the Border Patrol agents to fulfill their intended mission; catch illegals and stop the flow of drugs and human trafficking.

3.Create a path to citizenship for the hard-working, law-abiding illegals already in the U.S.

4.Provide a clear distinction for illegals so that ICE can locate, arrest and deport those without an Immigration Card.

5.Do all this with a program that pays for itself.

This is absolutely doable and become a vital part of the 2024 campaign. Here is the program outline and possible timetable:

• Now through November 2024, campaign on this program as part of the Campaign Platform.

• November, 2024: Republicans win the presidency and majority in the House and Senate.

• February 2025:  Hold hearing and pass a 10–20-page law that will accomplish the above immigration program.

PHASE ONE, Spring, 2025: The Immigration Reform Act (IRA) should:

• Require every state to set up Illegal-Immigrant-Card (IICard) processing sites.  The logical solution is to add positions to each existing DMV office.

• Additionally, in Phase One, every law enforcement agency in the United States will forward information to the FBI on every felony committed by an undocumented inhabitant (who, what, when and where).  The FBI will establish and maintain a national database of these cases which allows for an immediate check against an application for an IICard.

PHASE TWO, 1 July thru 31 December, 2025:  Every undocumented inhabitant in the U.S. will be invited to report to an IICard registration site in the state where they reside in accordance with a published alphabetical schedule (last name beginning in A, B, C, or D report during July, 2025, etc.).  the DMV will check into the FBI felony data base and if an applicant has a felony conviction, that person will be taken into custody, deported and will NEVER be eligible for an IICard.  This is an example of the specificity of the language that must be in the IRC; one strike and out. 

At this point you, the reader, are thinking something like, invite the illegals to report to the DMV, are you out of your mind?  Please stay with me, they absolutely will report to the DMV. 

Prior to appearing at the IICard registration site, each applicant must download a Federal Form, Employer’s Statement of Employment or a form for self-employed individuals.  Fill it out and have it signed by their employer or a reputable knowledgeable U.S. citizen. The form must contain a statement of strong penalties for any citizen signing a false statement. Registration fee for the IICard is $50 per year which is the first step in fulfilling the objective of immigration reform without taxpayer dollars.   

The IICard will have a number for each individual; for example, if issued in North Carolina the identification number will be NC123-45-678. The card will include a photo, height, weight, hair color, address, number of direct family members, issue date and termination date (one year).  

Also, during Phase Two, the IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers; it will be used like a social security number. Every card issued by the state DMV will automatically be updated on the IRS registry. Every IICard holder will file income tax just like a citizen.

When Phase Two ends, 31 December, 2025 it will never have to be repeated because every illegal immigrant in the U.S., on 31 December, 2025 will be either a legal holder of an IICard or they are deportable.  That is, on 1 January, 2026 we will know how many employed illegal aliens there are, where they live, where they work, what they do and how many direct family (spouse and children) members they have.  The remaining non-IICard holders need to be located and deported.   

PHASE THREE, 1 January, 2026:  The day following the initial 6-month registration period any employer who employs an undocumented worker (no IICard) will be subject to a fine of $25,000 for each worker; no exceptions, no excuses.

This simple act of requiring illegal aliens to carry an IICard will have four positive and immediate results:

First, employers will protect themselves from potentially heavy fines by only hiring inhabitants who have a valid IICard.

Second, undocumented inhabitants who choose not to apply for an IICard or were denied an IICard will not be able to find an employer who will take them on.  They will therefore be unemployable, will be constantly liable for deportation if detained for any reason and will likely return to their country of citizenship. Noncard holders will not be eligible for any state or national welfare support.

Third, foreigners contemplating illegal entry will soon learn that no employer is going to hire them and illegal entry will be a futile effort. This will shut down the thousands of illegals massing on our borders, forever.  Here why it will work. By early summer, 2025, wannabe immigrants around the world will understand the constrained time-line to get to the border, contact a Cartel operative, cross the border, process, find a home, find a job and get an employer verification all before their DMV-scheduled appearance will be impossible to accomplish and they will remain at home.    

Fourth, this will provide the 20,000 Border Patrol agents the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the illegal entry of drugs, terrorists, gang members and those operating in the slave/sex trade.  90% of Border agents are currently busy processing 8,000 illegals per day.  

PHASE FOUR, 1 July 2026 thru 30 June 2027:  This phase begins the twelve-month reissue of IICards; $50 fee.  The IICard color will change each year.  ONLY those inhabitants holding an IICard can receive a renewal card; NO NEW APPLICANTS.  Additionally, they will be denied renewal if they have been unemployed or made less than $5000 or if they have been convicted of a felony or if they failed to pay their income taxes.  Any card that is not renewed by the annual renewal date will automatically be moved to the government’s deportation list.

In order to fund the Immigration Reform Act, a provision in the law will require IICard holders to file income taxes and pay 10% Federal income taxes on gross income. The IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers and the data base will list earned income and taxes paid for the previous year.

During the IICard renewal process, the DMV registration center will access the IRS data base to determine if the applicant has in fact been employed, made at least $5000 and paid taxes.  No tax records, no card renewal and the applicant will be detained and deported.  The Federal Government will retain 2% of the tax revenue to fund national data bases for The Immigration Reform Act. The remaining 8% will be returned to the States in proportion to the number of IICard holders. 

Any IICard holder convicted of a felony will have their card pulled, be detained and deported.  That person’s file and IICard number will be annotated at the national registry to ensure that any future attempts to reapply will be denied.

Card holders who keep a job, obey the law and pay their taxes can apply for citizenship after five years.

See Chapter 2 of FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA for a few more details on how to implement this Immigration Reform Act.

Finally, what I am proposing to all of our Republican candidates is that you latch on to a list of programs and set them up as your 2024 Republican Campaign Platform.  The first was PART 1, the concept of operations to set the stage for World Peace. Second, PART 2 above, a doable plan for Immigration Reform. Coming next is PART 3 a detailed concept to simultaneously fix education and race relations across the nation for generations to come.  

If you know of a Republican candidate for office, please pass this on to them.  Thank you.

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.