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TRANSFORM THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

(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………

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.

VOTER FRAUD

(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.

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.

EDUCATION AND RACE RELATIONS REFORM

(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

IMMIGRATION REFORM

(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:

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.

2024 REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN PLATFORM

FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBLEM:

We-the-People and our government have a number of on-going issues that fall into the “crisis” category that are negatively impacting our every-day lives and have the potential to take this nation down. Here are ten for example:

Education is a national disaster; but fixable and with no new cost to taxpayers and saves hundreds of billions of dollars.

Race relations are not what they could/should be; but can be easily fixed.

Illegal immigration is costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and is a potential threat to our national security; but fixable with no new cost to taxpayers and will save hundreds of billions of dollars.
Take off your rose-collared glasses, voter fraud is alive, well and threatening the 2024 election just 10 months from now. It can be easily fixed with no new cost to taxpayer and can save hundreds of billions of dollars.

The out-of-control federal bureaucracy and the resulting regulation-nation is a threat to our foundational cornerstone of liberty- for-all; but fixable with no new cost to taxpayers and can save hundreds of billions of dollars.

Our $34 trillion national debt, increasing by billions per day, is a threat to our future but can be fixed without increasing taxes.

Congress, as an operational entity, is a disoriented, disgusting, dysfunctional disaster. It also can be fixed with standards and new procedures that will save hundreds of billions of federal dollars.

Redefining terms for Congress and term limits should be a priority but it isn’t. It will save billions in campaign financing and increase efficiency and competence of Congress.

Our most recent generations of young Americans are too uneducated and too dysfunctional. We need a period of awakening for our young adults leading to more productive lives through Universal Service for All; doable with some new federal funding offset with elimination of other needless spending. Pays dividends back to America for future generations.

World aggression (Russia/Ukraine, Hamas/Israel, ongoing Middle East terrorism, China threat to Taiwan, etc.) need not happen. World peace forever is doable with no new taxes but with specific new and innovative savings of hundreds of billions of federal spending dollars.

NOW:

Every day, with the ongoing campaigns, candidates across the nation are identifying to the voters some or all of the above ten crisis issues. But, have you heard any of them articulate workable, affordable, detailed solutions? No? Neither have I.

WHY? 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. Where the hell is the Republican National Committee and what are they doing? The purpose of the series of essays, starting with this one, is to produce solutions to a top-ten list of crises that our Republicans can campaign on, agree on, focus on win on and use to transform America.

MY THESIS:

There are viable solutions to each of these ten national and world problems and they all have some things in common.

They can become or are already a national crisis of major proportions.
They can all be fixed with little or no cost to taxpayers and in most cases, there will be savings of hundreds of billions of dollars per year going forward.
Detailed planning and execution for each can begin one year from now, 20 January, 2025, inauguration day.
Serious candidates for high offices can and should begin campaigning now on the details of the concepts of operation for each crisis issue; who, what, when, where, why and how.

Bottom line for my theses; if we fix the systems, we can transform America. But only if the Republicans win big in November, 2024.

INTENT: My intent is to influence the outcome of the 2024 campaign by providing to all Republican candidates a brief concept of operations outlines

for each crisis area that can be used to convince voters that, if elected, they will attempt to fix the systems and thereby transform America.

THE BOOK:

There is a book, Fix the Systems, Transform America, for sale available on Amazon, $11.99. And yes, I get a royalty for every book sold. The truth is, I don’t give a damn about the payments; but I do give a damn about this once-great country as I watch it deteriorate into big government control that is crumbling one of our greatest Constitutional gifts, Liberty. Without liberty, there is no will. Without will our nation may be soon irretrievably lost. I intend to publish a series of essays that will provide candidates with a brief outline explaining the concept of operations to fix the ten crises.

PART ONE is:

WORLD PEACE FOREVER (see Chapter 8 in the book for a more detailed discussion)

BACKGROUND:

The United Nations formed in 1945 has as its mission to, “maintain international peace and security.” The bottom line is that the UN has been and will continue to be a very expensive absolute failure. Why?

When the UN was formed, the founders provided for one unusual organizational element, the Security Council. It consists of five permanent members (US, UK, France, China, Russia) and ten temporary members chosen from the general membership who rotate in and out of the Security Council each year. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council also has primary responsibility for, “maintenance for international peace and security.” It also continues to be a miserable failure.

Why does the UN continuously fail to keep world peace and why can’t it be fixed? All major issues, especially those dealing with conflicts, flow out of the Security Council. For any affirmative action from the Security Council there must be a majority of the 15-members which includes ALL five of the permanent members voting in favor of an action. Any one of the five permanent members can veto and kill any measure. In today’s world, China and Russia have the power to negatively control all major issues associated with the 193-member organization.

Given the reality of the UN and Security Council, there will unlikely ever be a chance for world peace without forming another organization specifically designed for that purpose, peace. It is also unlikely a new organization will become a reality without the U.S. president’s leadership.

The key elements of the Concept of Operations for world peace are as follows:

The next U.S. president can take the lead in pulling together a new, single-mission (world peace) organization named United for World Peace. Their only mission will be to insure continuous international peace and security.

It must be clear to the nations of the world that this is not a move by the U.S. to take control of world security. United for World Peace will eventually have a small headquarters somewhere in the world headed by an elected Secretary General from any member nation for a 6-year term.

The United for World Peace mission is to build and sustain a combined military force called the International Deterrent Force, IDF. The “D” does NOT represent defense; the IDF will be first and foremost a continuous powerful deterrent force and when needed the world’s preeminent, massive, offensive force.

The U.S. president will seek to sign on at least 150 nations under the concept that has been completely successful over the past 75 years in NATO, “an attack against one is an attack against all.”

There should be two small military planning headquarters with the senior commander located in Europe with the deputy commander in Asia.

The responsibility of the Commander is to first identify all the elements necessary for a world-class, never-fail deterrent force that can, if necessarily, instantly become a rapid-response offensive force capable of defeating any nation’s military.

In consultation with each United for World Peace member, deterrent/deployable force elements will be designated for every member nation. First of all, the U.S. will provide its massive force-deployment air assets while other nations provide light and heavy divisions, tactical air, naval forces, special operations elements, etc. etc. Not all nations have military forces but they have doctors, nurses, truck drivers, logistics elements, air fields, ports, etc.

Every IDF participant will keep its force fully combat ready and rapidly deployable anywhere in the world within a 7-day period.

Every nation will fund its own deployable force contribution.

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

IDF READINESS CONDITIONS:

All contributing nations will exist in a state of one of four IDF readiness conditions, REDCONs.

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

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

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

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

Why would countries sign up to be a United for World Peace member? Here is a starter list of answers as to why such an organization is needed now and why it would be an easy sell.

For years the world has tolerated Hamas terrorists periodically launching hundreds or thousands of rockets into Israeli civilian communities. The Ukraine invasion by Russia could have been nipped in the bud and never become a conflict. Middle East countries and Israel are fearful of the hegemony intentions of a nuclear-equipped Iran but powerless individually to stop it. South Korea and Japan are very nervous about North Korea’s aggressive offensive missile and nuclear programs. Taiwan is fearful of a China invasion. Europe is fearful of Russian aggression. Former Soviet Republics are fearful that they may be next on Putin’s list. The Baltic countries and Finland are fearful of Russia, India is in a constant state of unrest over China’s border incursions. Who knows what the next move may be in Latin America? African border disputes are a recurring concern. Nations’ support for terrorist activities threatens the world. Aggressors who could/would use cyber-attacks to inflict humanitarian and economic disaster on another nation is a growing threat.

It is not unrealistic to believe that at least 150 nations could be convinced to sign on, especially since the U.S. has some leverage by providing annual monetary, military and/or humanitarian aid to many of the UN member nations.

Think back in time to December 2021 when Russia was massing an invasion force on Ukraine’s border. The United for World Peace Secretary General and the IDF Commander could have traveled to Moscow, met with Putin and delivered the following message. An IDF offensive force sufficient to destroy your military massed on the Ukraine border has been elevated to IDF REDCON 3 level and are moving to initial assembly areas as we speak. You have 24 hours to begin the continuous redeployment of every element near the Ukraine border. If you are not doing so in 24 hours, we will go to IDF REDCON 4 and initiate offensive air/land/sea operations against you.

The Secretary General and IDF Commander visit China and inform Xi Jinping that, he must never again threaten Taiwan with air and sea offensive demonstrations, the likes of which they have been conducting over the past months. A massive IDF naval strike force capable of total control of the South China Sea has been put on 24-hour alert to deploy. When/if deployed they will completely blockade all shipping into China to include the 10-12 million barrels of crude oil per day that you need to sustain your country. Additionally, missiles will be in place to take out the oil and gas pipelines supplying you from Russia.

And, so it goes around the world with visits to North Koea, Iran, individual terrorist organizations and any other bad actor contemplating a cross-border operation against any United for World Peace member nation.

BOTTOM LINE:

A selling point for this United for World Peace concept is that there was an existing proof of concept in being for decades. In 1922 Russia completed assembly of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR. For most of the post-World War II period the USSR was a conventional, biological and nuclear threat to North Atlantic nations until the USSR collapsed in 1991.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO deterrent force was formed immediately after WW II with 12nations, now 31. The overwhelming deterrent message to the USSR was NATO’s promise that, “an attack against one nation is an attack against all.” The NATO force consisting of combined elements from all NATO member nations was kept at a high state of combat readiness, Deterrence in force worked against the USSR for four decades and the same concept of operations will work against any and all future wannabe aggressors worldwide.

CONCLUSIONS:

The existence of an IDF would eliminate redundant military elements in excess of the IDF needs thereby reducing world-wide defense spending by trillions of dollars.

Any potential aggressor can instantly be facing a combined 150-or-greater-nation force.

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

U.S. presidents have for decades been referred to as “the leader of the free world.” But that is currently in name only. Here is an opportunity for the next U.S. president to lead the world towards sustained world peace. He or she must make it a number one, non-political priority.

From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, when taken at the flood leads one to fortune.” Ukraine and Gaza are our 21^st Century “flood.” There will never be a more appropriate time than now to pursue a solution for future world peace

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Back to my thesis: there are at least ten very visible crisis situations that are negatively impacting America and We-the-People today. They are all solvable.

This year’s Republican candidates are talking about some of the problems but not about the solutions. They need to lead the voters through the whole process of identifying the problem, defining the problem, articulating the solution by explaining to them the who, what, when, where, why and how. Get specific about who in the administration will have the lead on each concept of operations.

This essay, World Peace was an illustration to Republican candidates that for our current crop of crisis issues there is a concept of operations to solve it and at the same time reduce spending.

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

My intent, over the next few days is to present the outlines of a concept of operation to solve the other nine crisis issues.

My hope is that any of you who can communicate with Republicans candidates for Governor, Congress or the presidency will forward this series of essays to them. Thank you.

Coming soon, PART TWO, IMMIGRATION, what the voters are telling us is their number one concern.

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.

WHAT BIDENOMICS IS REALLY DOING TO US

For the past almost three years President Biden has been more vocal about employment than any other subject. This is a two-part essay. First, is he telling us the truth about job numbers and secondly some thoughts on why employment participation is what it is.

JOBS, FACTS

During January and February of 2020, the Trump economy continued to grow and 604,000 jobs were created (operative word). After reaching a peak in February 2020, employment fell by a combined 22.4 million in March and April, a Covid-related decline of 15 %. For example, there are more than one million restaurants in the U.S. and most of them closed temporarily. A month later jobs recovery began but it was a slow process and there was still a huge hole to fill when Biden took office 10 months later. That’s when Biden began his almost monthly public statements on jobs creation.”

The president’s boasting about jobs created began in the Spring of 2021, ‘We’ve created more than 1.5 million jobs, the most in the first 100 days of any president on record.”

This went on through 2021 and 2022, “We created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term.”

He persisted into 2023, “As we head into Labor Day, we ought to take a step back and take note of the fact that America is now in one of the strongest job-creating periods in our history; in the history of our country.”

“And it wasn’t that long ago that America was losing jobs. In fact, my predecessor was the one of only two presidents in history who entered his presidency and left with fewer jobs than when he entered.” Not a lie but very misleading in that he just failed to mention that in February and March of 2020 the pandemic took away 22 million jobs from President Trump.

It’s more than disappointing to think our president can get behind his teleprompter every month and assume we are all too stupid to know he is lying to us. And then finish off by crediting all of this economic success to Bidenomics, as he leans down close to the microphone and whispers, “Bidenomics, it’s working” as if he was telling a secret to a bunch on second graders.

But Biden can’t help but double down on what he is selling as Bidenomics. He continued later on in September saying, “Look, look at where we are now. Just this morning, we learned that the economy created 190,000 jobs last month. All told, we’ve added 13.5 million jobs since I took office, around 800,000 of them manufacturing jobs. We created more jobs in two years than any president ever created in a single four-year term. We did it in two years.”

Perhaps we better fact check that assertion that he has created more jobs than any other president. Sure, in terms of raw numbers, he did add more jobs because the population in 1970 was about 203 million compared to 331 million in 2020. By doing the comparative math correctly measured by percentage increase from the start of their terms, Biden ranks in the middle of the pack. His growth numbers were in fact exceeded by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Another lie. It gets to the point that we have to ask ourselves; can we believe anything he is reading to us from the teleprompter?

BOTTOM LINE ON THE “CREATED” ISSUE: Nearly 72% of all the job gains since 2021 were simply jobs that were being recovered from the 22 million pandemic layoffs. In fact, when looking at today’s economy compared to pre-pandemic levels, employment is up only by 3.7 million. On the other hand, prior to the pandemic, actual job creation under President Trump was 6.7 million jobs. Bidenomics has never yet reached the trend line established from 2017 through January 2021.

And all the while he is bragging about his economy, he is under water on every poll that deals with the economy.

LABOR PARTICIPATION RATE, the second part of this essay; what is it and how did we get to where we are today?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor force participation rate is an estimate of an economy’s active workforce. The formula is the number of people ages 16 and older who are employed or actively seeking employment, divided by the total civilian working-age population.

In the 12 months ending Aug. 2023, the U.S. labor force participation rate ranged between a low of 62.2% and a high of 62.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which publishes the figures monthly. As of Aug. 2023, it was 62.8%.

Background; when Obama/Biden took over in January 2009 the labor participation rate was 65.7%. That was the beginning of an 8-year steady decline until they departed the White House January 2017 with a participation rate of 62.8%’ about a 3% decline. Is 3% a big deal? Yes, it’s significant because in 2017 there were 165.2 million workers involved. Each percentage point represents 1,652,000 workers time 3 equals an Obam/Biden loss of about 5 million workers. That was an element of Obama’s declared formula to “fundamentally transform America.”

We need some more background information to clarify and understand the Obama/Biden 8-year labor participation rate disaster.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The legislation substantially reconstructed the nation’s welfare system by giving state governments more autonomy over welfare services while also reducing the federal government’s role.

The Welfare-to-Work Act, as it became known, provided for the following:

The act ended welfare as an entitlement program.
Required recipients to begin working after two years of receiving benefits.
Placed a lifetime limit of five years on benefits paid by federal funds.
Sought to encourage two-parent families and to discourage out-of-wedlock births.
Enhanced enforcement of child support.
And required state professional and occupational licenses to be withheld from undocumented immigrants.

This Act, with these requirements, ended six decades of federal government control of the programs. In the process of dismantling the old model, President Clinton created something, different and critical to success; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF, which changed the financing and benefit structure of cash assistance. Instead of welfare being funded in a more open-ended manner, now welfare was funded by federal block grants to states, along with a requirement that states had to match some of the federal dollars.

This Act created a foundational principle of “personal responsibility”; it changed the culture of U.S. welfare.

TANF:

Added work requirements for aid, shrinking the number of adults who could qualify for benefits.
It created caps for how long and how much aid a person could receive.
It instituted harsher punishments for recipients who did not comply with the requirements.

Following on, President Bush called on the Senate to take action to continue the historic progress of welfare reform and ensure that more Americans are able to achieve independence through work.

Did TANF work? In its annual report to Congress on the level of welfare dependency in the country, HHS found that 4.7 million fewer Americans were dependent on welfare three years after welfare reform was first passed in 1996. The percentage of the population dependent on welfare fell from 5.2% to 3.3% during that time.

As the rate of welfare dependency declined, the overall poverty rate in America fell. In the four years following enactment of welfare reform, 5.4 million fewer Americans were in poverty. Within these four years, the poverty rate for all individuals fell from 13.7% to 11.3%, the lowest rate since 1979.

2009: Enter Obama/Biden with their American transformation scheme.

“WITHOUT AUTHORITY, OBAMA MOVES WORKERS BACK TO WELFARE” were the headlines.

In a classic case of Executive Branch abuse of regularity power, Obama/Biden cut the legs off from the TANF program by informing the states that they could apply to the Secretary of HHS for a waiver of the work requirements contained in the law. That Obama/Biden move could have and should have been challenged by Congress and/or the Supreme Court because the work requirement was an essential element of the law and one that the stature specifically said cannot be waived. But it was not challenged.

The Obama/Biden initiative killed a 13-year-old successful program with the following negative ramifications:

The U.S. labor force participation rate went down about 3% which meant that about 5 million able-bodied welfare recipients did not transition from welfare to work.
The federal government essentially regained control of the welfare program and reverted back to the bad old days.
Obama/Biden significantly added to the size of the identity group voting block that is government-dependent and for the most part votes for the democrats.
The Congressional Research Service reported that the number of able-bodied adults on food stamps doubled after Obama suspended work requirements.
By 2016, a record 47 million Americans receive food stamps, about 13 million more than when they took office.
Increased welfare does not solve the poverty issue. The Census Bureau put the number of Americans in poverty at 45.3 million as of 2013. That’s not quite 5.5 million more people in poverty than there were in 2008, just before Obama took office.
When the labor force participation falls, tax revenue falls and government revenue is reduced as welfare costs go up.
Government spending on welfare increased 32% during the Obama/Biden first term.

WHAT DID BIDEN LEARN DURING HIS 8-YEAR TUTELAGE UNDER OBAMA?

Biden’s first budget submission in 2021 expanded welfare without work incentives setting the stage to trap a new generation of Americans in poverty and dependence. In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spen$1.19 trillion on more than 80 different welfare programs. That represents almost 20% of total federal spending and a quarter of tax revenues in 2022 or $9,000 spent per American household, all adding to the already unsustainable debt trajectory. The Congressional Budget Office has projected $12.7 trillion in spending on these programs over the FY 2024-2033 budget window.

What did Biden learn from Obama? He learned how to advance the movement towards a welfare state.

What are Obama’s building blocks to “systematically transform America? They came from Saul Alinsky, 1909-1972, a Chicago-based organizer, community activist and political theorist. Considered the father of community organizers, he became Hilary Clinton’s hero and Obama’s philosophical mentor (Obama quotes him often in his book and Hillary did her senior year thesis on Alinsky).

It is enlightening to align Alinsky’s eight steps from democracy to a socialist society with what is happening in America today with Democrat leadership.

1. Healthcare: “Control Healthcare and you control the People.” Democrats campaigned in 2020 for “Medicare for all.”

2. Poverty: “Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, Poor People are easier to control and will not fight back if the government is providing everything for them to live.”

Here are some 2022 quick facts about poverty provided by Poverty USA. The poverty threshold for an individual is a household income of approximately $13,000 per year, and it’s roughly $26000 per year for a family of four. 37 million Americans are living in poverty, which makes the poverty rate 11.4%. There are over 11 million children in poverty.

3. Debt: “Increase the National Debt to an unsustainable level.” Obama/Biden created more debt in 8 years than all previous administrations combined.

4. Gun Control: “Remove the ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a Police State with total local control.” Gun control is habitual Democrat priority campaign subject.

5. Welfare: “Take control of every aspect of their lives, food, livestock, housing, and income.” Government spending on welfare increased 32% during the Obama/Biden first term.

6. Education: “Take control of what People read & listen to; take control of what Children learn in School.” That is well underway across the nation in grades K-12 and in colleges and universities.

7. Religion: “Remove faith in God from the government and schools.” Almost there.

8. Class Warfare: “Divide the people into the wealthy against the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to tax the wealthy with full support of
the voting poor.” This is Biden’s “Tax the rich” on-going plan.

If you believe the Alinsky eight steps to socialism has some validity, and if you also believe the lid is already on the coffin, all that remains is to nail it down. Is that where we are with the Obama/Biden transformation of America?

CONCLUSIONS:

Americans are the most benevolent people on earth. We will always take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. But 80 government welfare programs run by an enormous out of control burearcracy can actually cause more harm than good.

The problem is with the work ethic of the millions who can, but choose not to, care for themselves because they have a choice and choose welfare over work.

BOTTOM LINE:

CBS reporting: “Today, 7.2 million men between 25 and 54 years old are not working or even looking for work and have essentially dropped out of the workforce resulting in a major hole in the American economy.

How are they spending their time? On average, nearly seven hours each weekday is dedicated to leisure time; relaxing, playing games and watching TV, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Meanwhile, more than 770,000 manufacturing jobs are open according to the latest federal count, from November 2023, even though manufacturing workers are, on average, earning more than $30 an hour.

Plan to go vote before the coffin gets nailed shut, forever.

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

“IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID”

It’s the economy stupid“, that famous phrase from the Clinton presidential campaign seems to rear its head with some application every four years. As I see it, in the 2024 campaign it could be used by Biden speaking down to his subjects and then going on to tell us all how great Bidenomics is and how it is, “building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up.” To me, using that interpretation, Biden will be telling We-The-People in the Middle Class and below economic strata that, “Bidenomics is working” and you all are better off than you were four years ago. More on that at the end.

POLLING DATA:

Any person, particularly those subject to the polling questions, will normally have a lot of negative things to say about polling results that are contrary to what that person believes. Those less skeptical and with an open mind will generally look at polling results and conclude that, while it could be a little off, generally it tells a believable story. That is, if you look at enough polling data over a protracted period and there tends to be a consistent theme, then we can conclude that the story might be about right.

August 17, 2023, The Associated Press published a poll telling us that while President Joe Biden has devoted the past several weeks to promoting the positive impacts of his policies, his efforts have yet to meaningfully register with the public. Only 36% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of the economy and he is at his lowest overall approval rating of 40%.
Over 60% of voters disapprove of President Biden’s foreign policy actions, according to a new poll from NBC News.
Even though Biden has been on a 3-year effort to buy votes by paying off college tuition debt, 70% of voters ages 18 to 34 disapprove of how Biden is handling the Israeli war.
Biden’s approval among small business owners stood at only 30 percent in a November 2023 CNBC survey with feedback from more than 2,000 small business owners.
Americans have lost confidence that their children will be better off than they are, according to a new poll. Nearly 80% of respondents said they “do not feel confident” in their children’s future.
September 15, 2023 Recent polling data suggested 63% of Americans are negative on the US economy, while 45% said their financial situation had deteriorated in the last two years.

Conclusions: There is a trend there and the American people are not buying what the White House is selling.

BIDENOMICS AND INFLATION:

In any discussion of inflation, keep in mind that the wealthy among us are not overly concerned if the cost of a dozen eggs or a loaf of bread doubles. The concern is for the masses who are hit the hardest; those in the lower income brackets because “poverty is a measure of how many families are unable to afford basic necessities for life.”

The One-hundred-year Inflation Rates table,1914-2023, published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, paints the inflation picture:

January 2021, Biden was sworn in with an inflation rate or 1.4 %; the lowest since 1998.
In his first 60 days in office the inflation rate nearly doubled to 2.6%.
In 90 days, it had tripled to 4.2%. By June 2021 it had nearly quadrupled to 5.4%. At that point, July 2021, Biden delivered a national address on inflation saying, “inflation is temporary and expected after the COVID-19 pandemic” (blame, blame, blame). Biden argued that about 60 percent of price increases were caused by “transitory effects” linked to COVID-19, such as shortages of lumber and semiconductors, and aren’t a sign of substantial long-term inflation linked to deficit spending.
2021 inflation was not temporary, it kept going up and by the end of his first year, January 2022, the inflation rate was 7.5%; from 1.4% to 7.5%, an increase of 436%.
It continued to rise in 2022 finally peaking in June at 9.1%; the highest inflation rate since February, 1981.

INFLATION DEFINED:

Econ 101, a simple, easy to understand definition; “Inflation occurs when too much money is chasing too few goods”. Let’s explore both elements of the equation in time and place.

Three critical dates for Covid relief legislation:

March, 2020: The pandemic was in high gear. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, was a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Trump on March 27, 2020, in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. CARES Act, the largest fiscal stimulus in modern history, focused on these primary policy goals: increasing consumer spending through direct cash payments to households; providing liquidity to small-and medium-sized firms, keeping workers on payroll through the Paycheck Protection Program and providing an extended safety net to millions of Americans by temporarily expanding the unemployment insurance system. This program provided critical resources to individuals and businesses during the most critical period of the pandemic.

December, 2020: The COVID-related Tax Relief Act of 2020, enacted in late December 2020, authorized additional payments of up to $600 per adult for eligible individuals and up to $600 for each qualifying child under age 17.

The relief packages in March and December, 2020 were successful, bringing covid relief to millions, on target and on time. The result was that about the time Biden was sworn in, the economy was on the rise; businesses were reopening, those laid off were reentering the labor force, Covid cases were decreasing and things were looking up.

And then, not to be upstaged by Trump in give-away programs, Biden’s Democrats quickly produced the American Rescue Plan even though the country had already been “rescued” by the 2020 relief legislation.

March, 2021: The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan bill included $1,400 payments to about 85% of Americans, $360 billion for state and local governments, $242 billion in expanded unemployment benefits, among other things.

Simultaneously in 2020 and 2021 there was a supply crisis; everything from lumber to refrigerators to microchips. Tens of billions of dollars’ worth of goods were backed up off the U.S. coasts in scores of cargo ships.

And there you have it, the perfect inflation storm; too much money in the hands of consumers chasing too few goods. “Biden’s The American Rescue Plan was far larger than the economy could support,” said Marc Goldwein with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

By the time Biden’s inflation generating rescue plan went into effect, the country was already reeling from a previous Biden inflation-generating decision as follows:

BIDEN AND FOSSIL FUEL:

January 2021, without warning, without consultation with Congress, without a White House team in place, without discussion, without We-The-People having a clue, Biden signed an Executive Order that placed

an indefinite “pause on new oil and natural gas leases on public lands” until a comprehensive review on the climate change impacts can be completed. During 2020 crude oil production on public lands was about 2.9 million barrels per day or about 25% of total barrels per day.

Then in November, 2021, Biden’s Build Back Better Bill contained a long list of increases in federal royalties and fees, plus new fees, new taxes, and barriers to leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf of Mexico which added millions of dollars in operating costs, pricing out U.S. production.

Here is what Biden’s actions did to diesel fuel prices:

January 2021: $2.68 per gallon, national average. About $800 to fill the tank of a long-haul 18-wheeler tractor trailer which gets about ten miles per gallon.
March 2021: $3.15 per gallon
November 2021: $3.75
March 2022: $5.11
June 2022: $5.75; a 215% increase since Biden took office 17 months earlier. About $1700 to fill the long-haul fuel tank.
September 2023: $4.37

Because of Biden-induced inevitable rising fuel prices negatively impacting everyone in America, Biden needed to take action to slow down the rate of rising fuel prices before the 2022 elections. First, he pleaded with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela and other oil-producing nations, some unfriendly to the United States, to increase their supply of oil. They blew him off.

This then prompted Biden to remove about 200 million barrels, more than 40% of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, leaving the stockpile at its lowest levels since 1984, and thereby putting the nation’s energy security at considerable risk. Considering that the U.S. daily consumption of oil is about 19 million barrels; that’s about 2 1/2 week’s supply from the Strategic reserve. Given the mess the world is in today and the U.S. vulnerability to terrorists’ attacks on U.S. soil right now, Biden has set the stage for a potential national security calamity.

These actions against the oil industry to appease the far-left wing of the Democrat Party caused an historic shift from net energy exporter in 2020, to net importer in 2021. The U.S. finally, after a 50-year effort, achieved energy independence in 2020 only to be squandered by Biden’s actions. America’s total bill for its imported crude oil purchases accelerated by 47.8% from 2021 to 2022. In 2022 the U.S. net imports of crude oil was about 2.7 million barrels per day. Oil imports from Venezuela, previously halted in 2019, were resumed under Biden’s sanctions relief in January 2023 and increased to 153,000 barrels per day in July 2023.

YOU NEED A NEW HAND SAW; a flat piece of metal about 2-3 inches wide at the front, tapering back to about 4 inches wide at the handle, a single set of teeth the entire length of about 2 feet.

Facts bearing on the new saw issue:

There is a lot of very heavy machinery involved in mining iron ore using huge amounts of diesel fuel.
Ore is transported to a processing plant by diesel-guzzling trucks and trains.
The ore is transposed into sheet metal and moved by truck to a warehouse.
A tool-manufacturing company orders the sheet metal; back on a truck to a tool manufacturing facility.
The new saw is sent by truck or train to their product distribution warehouses.
Lowes Hardware orders 500 saws that will be transported by truck to the Lowes regional warehouses.
The local Lowes Hardware orders 5 saws transported by truck from the warehouse to the store.
You get in your car, go to Lowes and purchase your new saw, thinking WOW, this seems expensive.

Moral of the story; every object you purchase has, at some time, been on a train or in multiple trucks. You, the consumer pays all of those transportation costs and when the price of diesel fuel increases from $2.68 to $5.75, you pay an inflation-related price. And, by the way, the wooden handle on your new saw that you purchased in Miami Florida was, a couple months ago, part of a tree in Montana.

This is Bidenomics inflation, he made it, he has sustained it, he has negatively impacted the lives of every American and he must be held accountable by We-The-People.

INFLATION, WHAT IT DOES:

Too many Americans are being forced to choose between paying for groceries and heating their house.

A December 2022 study from The Heritage Foundation determined that Americans had lost around $7,100 in spending power since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021.

November, 2023, according to a Lending Club report, 60% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

A Federal Reserve report last week shows that credit card debt climbed to a record high in the third quarter of 2023, surging nearly 5% from the previous quarter and leaving a growing share of borrowers late on payments.

The federal government reported November, 2022 that personal savings under Biden have fallen off a cliff. The personal saving rate, meaning personal saving as a percentage of disposable income, fell to 3.3%. Adjusted for inflation, savings are down 88% from their 2020 peak and 61% lower than before the pandemic.

HOW TO STOP RISING INFLATION RATES:

The good news is rising inflation can be slowed. The bad news is that the method involves rising interest rates.

The average 30-year fixed rate reached an all-time record low of 2.65% in January 2021 when Biden took office before surging to 7.79% in October 2023, according to Freddie Mac.

Hundreds of thousands of small-to-large businesses have had to delay their growth plans because of the cost of borrowing money.

Interest costs on the national debt soared to $659 billion in fiscal year 2023. That’s up $184 billion, or 39%, from FY 2022 and is nearly double what it was in fiscal year 2020. Taxpayers spend nearly $2 billion every day just on interest on the national debt. According to the Congressional Budget Office’s long-term projections, interest on the debt is expected to hit $1.4 trillion by fiscal year 2033.

BIDENOMICS IN EVERY HOUSEHOLD:

Prices for electricity are 24.73% higher in 2023 than in 2020.
Prices for food are 22.1% higher in 2023 than in 2020.
Heating oil, April 2020, $.86; October 2022, $5.72. A 565% increase.
Poverty: September 2023, the Census Bureau announced that the U.S. poverty rate rose to 12.4 % in 2022 from 7.8 % in 2021, the largest one-year jump on record. Poverty among children more than doubled, to 12.4%. As illustrated above, family necessities such as food, electricity and energy will hit low-income families the hardest.

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT:

Help is on the way??? Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law on Aug. 16th.

According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, there’s low confidence the legislation will have any impact on inflation.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill will barely make a dent on inflation in the near term and could even nudge it upward.

Biden told us, “After all, this bill cuts costs for families to help reduce inflation at the kitchen table.”

Who do you believe?

ANOTHER BIDENOMICS STAB IN THE HEART OF TAXPAYERS:

Biden has proposed that the corporate tax rate should increase from 21% to 28%, plus a15% minimum tax would apply to corporate book income. Additionally American corporations’ foreign income generally would be subject to a tax of 21%.

When will he get it through his head that corporations DO NOT PAY TAXES. Oh yes, they eventually write the check but where did they get the money? When any company makes a product there are costs; raw materials, transportation, plant operations, wages/salaries, advertising and tax. AND YOU AND I PAY FOR ALL OF IT WHEN WE BUY THE PRODUCT!! Corporate tax is just another cost of producing the product. The company’s profit is added on and that becomes the sales price. By taxing the corporation and thereby raising the price, the U.S. becomes less competitive in the global market.

While 60% of American households are already living from paycheck to paycheck, they can look forward to paying “their fair share” of corporate tax increases which will be added to everything they purchase.

BIDENOMICS SUMMAY TO DATE:

Real disposable income, DOWN 7.5%
Home ownership affordability, DOWN 37.3%
Credit card debt, UP 36;2%
Monthly savings, DOWN 81.4%

BOTTOM LINE:

In the first paragraph I theorized that there are perhaps two applications of the Clinton quote from 1992, “It’s the economy stupid.” The first application is that, in the 2024 campaign, it could be used by Biden speaking down to his subjects and then going on to tell us all how great Bidenomics is and how it is, “building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up.” To me, by using that interpretation, Biden will be telling all those in the Middle Class and below economic strata that, “Bidenomics is working” and you all are better off than you were four years ago.

A second application, and one that seems more fitting today is for those in the Middle Class and below economic strata to speak in the voting booth, saying to their president, “It’s the economy stupid.”

FINALLY, IT’S TIME FOR THE “TO” AND “FOR” QUESTIONS:

What has Biden done “to” We-The-People in his first three years in office? See the answer in all of the above.

What has Biden done “for” We-The-People in his first three years in office? Please put together your own list; that one is in my too-hard box.

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

TRANSFORM THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND CUT SPENDING

On 1 November, I published an article entitled CUT SPENDING BY TRANSFORMING CONGRESS INTO A MORE EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION. In that article I explained there were two ways for the Federal Government to cut spending. The 1 November article centered on how to fix Congress and this one explains how to fix the Executive Branch.

The intent of these two articles is to answer President Biden’s question, “What do the Republicans stand for?” At the time he said it, after the lackluster 2022 midterm election results, it was his way of declaring that the Republican Party does not stand for anything. In light of the 2022 midterm election results, perhaps he is correct or at least too many voters do not believe or see or hear enough about the Republican Party’s underpinnings. Republicans need to find a way to make it crystal-clear to the American public that strong defense, a growing economy, less taxation, states’ rights, law and order, secure borders, energy independence and deregulation, to name a few, are what the Party “stands for.” Also, there was a time when fiscal constraint and fiscal responsibility were regularly included in that list.

All the time we hear Republicans in Washington saying, “We have to cut spending.” “We have to get control of the $33 trillion national debt.” But, when was the last time you heard one of them say, “There are two ways we can cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of the annual budget, get control of excessive spending, and move the country towards a balanced budget.” The point being, there are actual solutions to the problems that are tearing this nation apart and we need our Republican spokespersons to begin leading.

First of all, as a new leader in the House of Representatives, Speaker Johnson is perfectly positioned to publish an agenda that articulates actual solutions the Republican Party believes in and plans to initiate. Secondly, the Republicans have a very strong bench of presidential candidates all out there talking about what needs to be fixed but have you heard one of them say, “Let me explain to you (the voters) exactly how we will cut spending and balance the budget.” I am not suggesting that these two solutions to fix Congress (1 November article) this one, fix the Executive Branch, are the only ways to cut spending, but it is a start that voters can understand and believe in.

GROUND TRUTH:

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.

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 officials, programs initiated to solve a short-term problem but live on forever. The list is long. 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.”

Before we launch into how to fix spending and the bureaucracy, a word about the national debt. The out-of-control spending and debt increase is a relatively new problem. The Obama/Biden administration swamped us with more debt than all of the 43 previous presidents combined. And now increasing debt annually has become the norm. The Congressional Budget Office has been telling us for several years that annual debt increases are “not sustainable”, aka, there will be a day of reckoning and it will be ugly.

It is difficult to get our minds around a debt figure of $33 trillion and growing at a rate of about $6 billion a day; a billion dollars about every four hours. If you had stood on a street corner in 1991 handing out dollar bills, one dollar per second, you would just about now finish giving away the first 1 billion dollars. You would be on that street corner for 32,000 years to hand out the first $1 trillion. If you were paying off the current debt at one dollar per second, it would take you over 1 million years. Unsustainable. We have to do something about spending and we have to change the way we think about debt before that day of reckoning becomes a reality.

As Joe Biden was sworn in as president on 20 January 2021 the U.S. national debt was $27.6 trillion. Twenty months and two weeks later it passed $31 trillion; 19 September, 2023 it passed $33 trillion. It will pass $34 trillion before the 2024 election.

A WAY AHEAD IN 2024:

Congressional Authority over the Executive Branch:

Congressional oversight refers to the power of the U.S. Congress to monitor and change, if necessary, the actions of the executive branch, including the many federal agencies.
The main goals of congressional oversight are preventing waste, fraud, and abuse and protecting rights and civil liberties.
Congressional oversight is one of the “implied” powers granted to Congress by the “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution.
In empowering the legislative branch of government to oversee the executive branch, congressional oversight forms a key element of the system of checks and balances of power among the three branches of government.
Congress can also limit an agency’s power by reducing its funding in the annual federal budget process.

Transforming the Executive Branch should be a 6-phase program enacted and enforced by the House of Representatives between now and into the next administration in February, 2025.

PHASE 1: Given the above listed authority, the House should immediately, as part of Speaker Johnson’s agenda, propose specific legislation for the next president to initiate an Executive Branch-wide effort to reduce the size, budget, and influence of the sprawling Executive Branch. In all probability the big-government proponents in the Congress as well as the Biden administration will oppose such legislation. But the Republican Party could, in early January 2024, be on record with a specific plan to reduce the size and reach of the federal bureaucracy which will reduce spending and make voters believe the Republican Party is, in fact, fiscally conservative.

The House Republicans can use this legislative agenda, and the fact that the Democrats have rejected it, to present and execute the remaining phases.

PHASE 2: This 118^th Congress should pass an array of reform legislation to cut spending that includes, but not be limited to, the way Congress operates and the plan to streamline the Executive Branch.

PHASE 3: The 2024 Presidential Campaign. During the primary-election season, all Republican candidates should campaign on specific proposals that will alleviate the spending and debt crises and, if elected, will make it a priority to execute detailed reform processes.

PHASE 4: During the 2024 general-election campaign, the Republican presidential candidate will make it clear that the priority for his/her vice president will be to lead Spending and Debt Reform execution.

PHASE 5, post-election: Nomination of Executive Branch Leaders, November 2024 through January 2025. The president/vice president-elect should concentrate their selection process on principals 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 cutting spending.

PHASE 6: Spending and Debt Reform Execution, January 2025-June 2025. This will be a difficult process because we are talking about change, massive change, within each Executive Branch organization. We must recognize that for any large organization, especially one as large as the Executive Branch, 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, 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 American people.

How does all this get accomplished? It is a long and tedious process; even explaining it is a long tedious read but 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 Spending and Debt Reform 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 Washington.

Second, early February, 2025, define the end state and end date for the campaign. For example, the VP might say, “Over the next six 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 (communicate) 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, February through August 2025, execute: 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.

First, 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 organizational element to the overall Department’s mission?

Second, the report should describe the grade structure of all the employees in the box.

Third, describe a typical work week; number of meetings, amount of travel, etc.

Fourth, 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?

Fifth, 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?

Sixth and 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. 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 also be able to pick up strong points and pass them along to other Departments as best practices.

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 2023 budget of $68 billion; not to mention the hundreds of billions of tax dollars expended by the department since its inception 43 years ago.

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:

Why do all of this work? Two reasons:

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 hundreds 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, 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.

BOTTOM LINE:

Getting spending and hence debt under control will resonate with the American people a lot more than the tax-and-spend economic baseline of the Democrat Party. This is a necessary, positive endeavor the Republican Party needs to embrace now with legislation that will call for this to happen with the next administration.

This legislation will send a powerful message to Congress and the voters; Congress has become increasingly irresponsible with deficit spending and debt. They need a wake-up call and now is the optimum time.

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.”

Transforming Congress and the Executive Branch are not the do-all, be-all efforts to cut spending but they are a start, they are understandable, they will save taxpayer money and they are within the art of the possible. The Republican Party needs to embrace this concept of operations and Republican leaders in the House and 2024 Republican presidential candidates need to lead the way.

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

CUT SPENDING BY TRASFORMING CONGRESS INTO A MORE EFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT ORGANIZATION

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

$10 million for “gender programs” in Pakistan,

$300 million for fisheries,

$100 million for NASA,

$300 million to Endowment for the Arts,

$300 million to Endowment for the Humanities,

$300 million to Public Broadcasting,

$500 million for Museums and Libraries,

$720 million to Social Security Administration,

$315 million to the State Department,

$90 million to the Peace Corp,

$492 million to National Railroad Passenger Corp,

$526 million grant to Amtrak.

$4.7 billion in foreign aid to nine countries.

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

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

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

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.

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.

$33 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. The 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. The solution is 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.

FIX THE SYSTEM, TRANSFORM CONGRSSIONAL SPENDING

I am suggesting institutionalizing a set of seven new operational standards for Congress. But before we get to that, the members need to think about serving in Congress as a full-time job. From 2001 to 2018, the Senate spent an average of 165 days in session each year, and the House spent an average of 140 days in session; less than three days average per week.

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 and to administer the life-cycle of a piece of legislation as explained below. 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 bill that 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, 5593-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 5593-page Covid-19 relief bill before they voted on it.

STANDARD NUMBER FOUR, STAND-ALONE: Every bill will be a single-issue piece of legislation. Period.

STANDARD NUMBER FIVE, TIME LIMITS: There are wo 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 window.

STANDARD NUMBER SEVEN, STANDARD WEBSITE FORMAT: Every piece of legislation will be formatted with four specific sections and pages as follows:

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

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Page 1, Administrative data

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

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

Date which starts the 90-day calendar: ( the date the CLSA initially sends this 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 US. 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.

The Executive Branch of government, to include the president, should author a larger portion of the bills. Why? Because they know the who, what, when, where, why and how details of their proposals 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:

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Page 2, Legislation Intent

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

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

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

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

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

Page 3, Component outline

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

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

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

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

CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION STANDARDS AUTHORITY

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

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

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 program, The Congressional Legislation Standards Authority (CLSA), we would have known on day-one who sponsored this insane earmark. We would have known when a committee was going to discuss it. We would have known weeks in advance when it was going to be voted on. We would have known all this because it would have been a stand-alone bill, not hidden inside a 5593-page unread bill. Accountability and transparency would have been front and center. The fact is, it would never have made it to the floor for a vote because visibility 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.

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 moving toward greater fiscal responsibility 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, hopefully, by the first Monday in February.

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

BUDGET RESOLUTION: 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.

Comment: 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 on time results in either passing continuing resolutions (CRs) or shut 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.

STANDARDS FOR THE ANNUAL BUDGET PROCESS, FEBRUARY THROUGH SEPTEMBER. STANDARD NUMBER ONE: Leaders publish detailed plans

STANDARD NUMBER TWO: IPRs

STANDARD NUMBER THREE: Work days

STANDARD NUMBER FOUR: Election year schedule

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

The Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader in the Senate and House and Senate Budget Committee chairpersons will be required to prepare and publish a Concept of Operations for the FY 2025 budget preparation process published on the CLSA website not later than 15 January. Their narratives will cover the who/what/when/where/why and how of the process in great detail.

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

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.

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

Each of the leaders’ directives will include consideration of the fact that 2024 is an election year and August/September will be campaign time for all but a few of the Senators.

BOTTOM LINE:

We cannot go into FY 2025 with continuing resolutions and a potential

government shutdown with a post-election lame-duke government.

The new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is in a perfect position to bring forward a new idea on how to make the budget process an annual success vs the annual disaster it has been for decades.

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

2022-2023, UKRAINE, SUDAN, ISRAEL CONFLICTS. WHY NOT WORLD PEACE INSTEAD?

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

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

The escalation in the conflict between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) reaches its sixth month, 15 October 2023, resulting in the deaths of at least 5,000 civilians, more than 12,000 injured, and over 5.7 million people forcibly displaced. What if this could have been prevented?

October 2023 Hamas militias attacked Israel from Gaza with ground forces and rockets killing and injuring thousands of innocent civilians and taking hundreds of hostages. What if these types of attacks from organization were to never happen again?

The daily media dose of reality from Ukraine, Sudan and Israel has touched nearly everyone’s heart and mind with feelings of disbelief, distrust, disgust, and anger towards the aggressor leaders; empathy, sorrow, and compassion for the millions of in-country displaced citizens, out of country refugees, those mourning killed or missing family members and what the people face in the foreseeable future. What if there was a system in place to prevent this?

The purpose of this essay is to present a concept of operations for implementation of an in-place, continuously operational International Deterrence Force to preemptively prevent conflict and create lasting world peace.

When Ukraine, Sudan and Hamas/Israel are over, an international after-action review should be initiated. It must not be a thousand-page bureaucratic “study” published in a couple of years which would be worse than worthless. What it must be is a succinct accounting of three simple, but essential, questions:

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

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

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

THE PROBLEM: If we cannot define the problem, there is no solution. The problem is two-fold. First, is the realization that throughout mankind there have always been and will always be evil men who will kill others for control, power and profit. The second problem is that we, the innocent, do not have a plan to prevent the evil among us from killing others on a massive scale. Case in point, Ukraine, Sudan, Israel today.

BACKGROUND leading to a proposed solution:

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS:

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

THE UNITED NATIONS:

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

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

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

THE UN TODAY:

To understand what must be fixed, here is a short-hand view of what is wrong. The UN consists of Six Principle Organs:

· General Assembly

· Security Council

· Economic and Social Council

· Secretariat

· International Court of Justice

· Trusteeship Council (currently inactive)

THE SECURITY COUNCIL:

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

Under the United Nations Charter, the principal function of the Security Council is to “Ensure international peace and security.” Additionally, the subset authority allows the Council to:

Investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction.
Recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of a settlement.
Formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments. Determine the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression and recommend what action should be taken.
Call on Members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression.
Take military action against an aggressor.

Given these clearly articulated responsibilities and authority, we can conclude that the UN in general and the Security Council, in particular, have been abject failures for seven decades. First of all, can you imagine a large international company CEO having fifteen Executive Vice Presidents, each allowed to lead for a month every fifteen months; thereby allowing each to bring his or her biases and priorities to the forefront. It’s insane.

A perfect example of the UN’s ineptitude is that they have never identified either Hamas or Hizballah as terrorist organizations.! They are “legitimate political movements.”

A UN INITIATIVE FOR WORLD PEACE:

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

Every member nation would agree to contribute to a worldwide deterrent force that can be deployed anywhere in the world within seven days. Every nation will contribute according to its capabilities. Some examples

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

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

The force could be called the International Deterrence Force, IDF. The “D” in IDF does not stand for Defense. The IDF will not be designed for defense. It will send an undeniable message to any nation that is contemplating an offensive action that within seven days an overwhelming force compiled from over 150 contributing nations can be in place for a counteroffensive. That is the real-world definition of deterrence. The UN/IDF could borrow NATO’s Article 5 concept, “An attack on one member is an attack against all members.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IDFCON 4: Deployment of all designated deterrence elements to the target area and preparing to initiate an overwhelming counteroffensive.

FUNDING:

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

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

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

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

BOTTOM LINE ON THE UN:

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

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

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

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

COURSE OF ACTION ONE: INTERNAL UN UPRISING:

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

Do away with the Security Council.
Move the mission statement, that for seven decades has been the unfulfilled responsibility of the Security Council, to the Secretariat; “Ensure international peace and security.”
Replace the appointment process for a new Secretary-General with a system whereby anyone from a member nation can campaign for the position. A new Secretary-General will be elected for a 6-year term by a majority vote of the General Assembly.
Proceed to establish the International Deterrence Force.

COURSE OF ACTION TWO: UPRISING EXTERNAL TO THE UN:

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

A small headquarters anywhere in the world.
An elected president for one six-year term.
A fully operational International Deterrence Force as described above.
The United for World Peace mission statement could be pulled directly from the UN Charter:

“Ensure international peace and security” by executing the following:

Investigate any dispute or situation which might lead to international friction.
Recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of the settlement.

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

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

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

Take military action against an aggressor.

The U.S. could lead this initiative and it should be done now while the Ukraine/Sudan/Israeli situations are fresh in everyone’s minds. The selling points are obvious:

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

We must prevent a repeat of a Ukrainian-like disaster.

We must be proactive with an overwhelming deterrence force continuously in place.

NATO, in being since 1949, is a perfect example of deterrence in action.

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

Every member nation would commit some resource to an International Deterrence Force by their capability.

Why would countries sign up to be a member? Here is a starter list of answers as to why a United for World Peace organization is needed now and why it would be an easy sell at this point.

Middle East countries and Israel are fearful of the hegemony intentions of a nuclear-equipped Iran but powerless individually to stop it.
South Korea and Japan are very nervous about North Korea’s aggressive offensive missile and nuclear programs.
Taiwan is fearful of a China invasion.
Europe is fearful of Russian aggression.
Former Soviet Republics are fearful that they may be next on Putin’s list.
The Baltic countries and Finland are fearful of Russia, and
India is in a constant state of unrest over China’s border incursions.
Who knows what the next move may be by dictators in Latin America?
African border disputes are a recurring concern.

Nations’, such as Iran, support for terrorist activities threatens the world.
Aggressors who would use cyberattacks to inflict humanitarian and economic disaster on another nation are a growing threat.

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

CONCLUSIONS for both courses of action:

A successful United for World Peace organization (Course of action 2) could be subsumed by the UN if they can find a way to revise the existing Charter (course of action 1).
With an International Deterrence Force in place there is no longer a requirement for NATO.
With the IDF in place, defense funding could probably be reduced around the world by hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars per year. For example, right now NATO members (Germany in particular) are ramping up their defense spending for forces that may be redundant beyond IDF requirements.
There will no longer be a need for nations’ bilateral treaties for mutual defense.
Since 2016 the European Union has been talking about the need for an EU armed force. Cancel that.
With world peace assurances in place, the next step could be a world without nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, or biological weapons.
The UN “peacekeeping force” budget for 2021 was $6.38 billion. With active worldwide deterrence and an overwhelming rapidly-deployable counter-offensive force, peace will be the standard day-to-day condition.
The next step could be for the IDF Commander to visit North Korea to discuss ICBM and nuclear testing. Then on to Iran to discuss Iran’s role as the world’s leading supporter of terrorist organizations. Etc. etc. etc.
With a proactive International Deterrence Force in place, no nation would ever need to feel alone or stand-alone.
There is currently a lot of discussion about the New World Order. Well, here is a new twist on The New World Order, call it World Peace.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Mr. President, you are currently, “The leader of the free world” in name only. Here is an opportunity to lead the world towards sustained world peace. Make it your number one, non-political priority.

From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “There is a tide in the affairs of men when taken at the flood leads one to fortune.” There will never be a more appropriate time than now to pursue a solution for future world peace.

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