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CAMPAIGN FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

CAMPAIGN FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Facts bearing on the problem:

Twenty-five million is probably a low estimate of the number of illegal aliens in the United States now.

In 2021, 1.9 million illegals crossed the border and checked in with Border Patrol Agents; tens of thousands were unaccompanied children who are being housed in facilities, some of which are at 800% capacity. That’s 5,200 illegals per day that we know of, an estimated 20%, 1000 per day, were sick; aka Covid carriers.

In 2021, illegals crossed into the U.S. from at least 54 nations.

The real taxpayer cost to support Biden’s illegal immigration is undisclosed but $3 billion in 2021 is a starting figure.

While the agents were overwhelmed with those 5,200 illegals per day who checked in with the agents, Border Patrol knows the 1.9 million illegal crossings in 2021 does not include the tens of thousands of criminals, MS13 gang members, drug dealers, human smugglers and terrorists.

Also, while the Border Patrol Agents were overwhelmed processing families and chasing “runners”, tons of fentanyl, marijuana and cocaine was smuggled across, killing over 100,000 Americans in 2021.

Branden Judd, National Border Patrol Council President, in a Fox News interview 8 February, made four important points you will not hear about on 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.”

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

2. 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 an identity group, enable them with disincentivized federal cradle-to-grave entitlements and in doing so develop a solid recurring voting bloc.

Biden-the-unifier conveniently overlooks the fact that two thirds of Americans disagree with his immigration policy. Biden won’t talk about it and his immigration czar is busy looking for the “root causes” of the caravans coming out of southern Central American countries. Madam Vice President, let me give you a little help; anyone with two brain cells to rub together recognizes the root cause is rampant crime, corruption at every level and endemic poverty. You have recently been emphatic about the need to get out of Washington. Well, how about spending some time in the Rio Grande area and perhaps get inside one of the unaccompanied-minor housing facilities that is at 800% of capacity and then look for the root causes of that mess.

3. End State. If the Republican Party was to brain-storm a possible 2022/2024 campaign plan to clean up the illegal immigration mess, what would we be looking for? It might look something like this:

Institute a policy that will shut down the mases of illegals crossing our borders, forever.

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

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

Provide a clear distinction for illegals that ICE should locate, arrest and deport.

Do all this with a program that pays for itself.

4. Looks good on paper, but is it doable? Absolutely, yes, it is. Here is the program outline and possible timetable:

November, 2022: Republicans win majority in the House and Senate.

January/February 2023: Hold hearing and pass a 10–20-page law that will accomplish the campaign goals in paragraph 3. To do so the Congress may have to override a Biden veto. If a veto-override fails, this program should then become a high-priority 2024 presidential campaign issue.

5. Phase one, Spring, 2023, 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.

6. Phase Two, 1 July thru 31 December, 2023: 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, 2021, etc.). the DMV will check into the FBI felony data base and if the 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, fill it out and have it signed by their employer. No employer signature, no IICard. The form must contain a statement of strong penalties for any employer 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, issue date and termination date.

Also, during Phase Two, the IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers. Every card issued by the state DMV will automatically be updated on the IRS registry.

When Phase Two ends it will never have to be repeated because every illegal immigrant in the U.S., on 31 December, 2023 will be either a legal holder of an IICard or they are deportable. That is, on 1 January, 2024 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.

7. Phase Three, 1 January, 2024: This is the phase that begins to change behavior and thereby solve the dual problems of 25 million undocumented inhabitants and continued unsecured borders.

On 1 January, 2024, the day following the initial 6-month registration period any employer who employs an undocumented worker (no IICard) will be subject to a first-offence fine of $25,000 for each worker and $50,000 each worker, second offense. No exceptions, no excuses. No employer is going to risk their livelihood over the employment of an illegal alien. Laws change behavior and immediately adds accountability of employers into the immigration solution.

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.

Third, and this gets us to the objective in paragraph 3 to, “shut down the mases of illegals crossing our borders, forever”. Foreigners contemplating illegal entry into the United States in order to work will soon learn that no employer is going to hire them and illegal entry will be a futile effort. This inevitable behavior change will, by default, reduce illegal immigration to a manageable trickle.

Fourth, this will provide 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.

8. Phase Four, 1 July 2024 thru 30 June 2025: 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. Additionally, they will be denied renewal if they have been unemployed and made less than $5000 or if they have been convicted of a felony or if they failed to pay their 10% federal tax. Once denied, they will be detained, deported and never receive another card. Any IICard that is not renewed by the annual renewal date will automatically be moved to the government’s deportation list.

9. In order to fund the Immigration Reform Act, a provision in the law will require IICard holders to pay 10% Federal income taxes on gross income. Employers must issue a 1099 using the individual’s IICard number to identify them to the IRS. 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 renewal and the applicant will be detained and deported. The Federal Government will retain 2% of the tax revenue to fund four 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 his 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.

10. To assist the law-abiding, hard-working illegals towards citizenship, the Department of Labor will establish a web site that can assist an individual who has lost their job. Any card holder can get on the Labor Department website and provide their name, location and skills. Employers will be encouraged to check this website when they have job openings.

11. There will be four related national data bases associated with this plan. First is the basic national data base with the personal data and card number of each IACard holder, maintained by Immigration and Naturalization Services. Second is the data base of taxpaying IICard holders maintained by the IRS. Third, is the data base of undocumented known felons in the US; maintained by the FBI. Finally, there is the jobs-available registry at the Department of Labor.

12. An IICard holder will have the following four privileges:

One, they may apply for a state vehicle operator’s license and will be tested in English. A provision of the law will be that every state must also prominently display the individual’s IICard number on the State Driver’s License. Additionally, every applicant must show proof of auto insurance.

Two, a current IICard will authorize the holder to legally cross U.S. borders.

Three, legal holders may apply for an IICard for their immediate family members using the sponsor’s IICard number with a suffix, for their spouse and children (no extended family members). If granted, the sponsor will be authorized to escort the dependents across the U.S. border.

Four, after legally holding an IICard for five consecutive years, that person is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship for themselves and their immediate family (spouse and children).

13. Remember, these people are here illegally. Therefore, they will not be eligible for social security, federal welfare payments, food assistance programs, Medicare, Medicaid, or social services. This will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year in federal and state assistance payments.

14. Conclusions:

Objectives for a completely reformed immigration system, paragraph 3, are reasonable and clearly within the art of the possible. But it isn’t going to happen unless the Republican Party collectively gets to work and makes this a priority campaign issue in 2022. Has anyone in the Republican Party figured out that this is 2022 and we are just nine months away from perhaps the most impactful election in our history? We cannot take a chance on not winning because this nation may not survive three more years of Biden/Harris/Pelosi/Schumer.

Have we yet heard from a Republican leader exactly what the party will stand for this election year? Have we heard any candidate spell out in detail, this is what needs to be done and this is how we can get there?

Has anyone searched the RNC website looking for a page that lists the 2022 Republican platform. Yes, I have and it isn’t there. Biden has already asked the question, “What are you (republicans) for?” Well, I don’t know because the RNC and Republican leadership has not told our hundreds of 2022 candidates what to talk about, what to promise, what to say. This is absurd, incompetent and disgusting. For the last six months all we have heard is how easy it is going to be to win in November, 2022. Well, here is a news flash; that is not a fact, that is an assumption and plans bases on too many assumption are rarely successful.

15. Note to my readers. This is the third recent article in which I tried to define a problem, recommend what needs to be done and how to go about achieving the desired end-state. See Spending and Debt Reform January 22, 2022 and Education Reform in America, January 29, 2022. In the previous articles I requested that you, the readers, who personally know and can communicate with our 2022 candidates, reach out to them and ask that they make Spending and Debt and Education Reforms part of their campaigns. I again suggest that you do that for Immigration Reform.

At this point let me depart from the immigration reform issue and quickly look at the possibility of this, or any other subject, being recognized by the Republican National Committee as a critical 2022 campaign issue.

16. My conclusion is that Ronna McDaniel and the Republican National Committee need a wake-up call. Open the website by asking for the RNC 2022 Republican Platform. What you will get is a 50-page narrative written in 2016 by a committee. 2016! Yes, it’s good background reading but it is not what we need right now. What the hell has the RNC been doing in 2021 in preparation for the 2022 mid-terms that is the most important election in the last 50 years? Obviously, nothing.

We need a list of what we are for. We need this because Biden, on 19 January, during his 2-hour press conference, said six times, “What are the Republicans for?”, “What are the Republicans for?”

We need sound bites with talking points yesterday. We need them in the hands of every local, state and federal Republican candidate. Here is a starter list: spending and debt reform, education reform, a strong military, smaller federal government, regulation reform, states’ rights, individual rights, law and order, secure borders, lower taxes, school choice, immigration reform, etc. etc. We need at least 25 of them that every Republican candidate in the country can tic off in one minute at every speech. And for every one we need talking points in one short paragraph that tells the why and how. One paragraph, not a thousand-word chapter from the 2016 platform.

Additionally, from the RNC, we need a list of what we are NOT for with talking points. We are not for higher taxes, a massive controlling federal government, over regulation, cradle-to-grave entitlements that are paid for with borrowed money, education unions’ control over education, etc. etc. etc. We need it right now.

In this 2022 campaignwe need to attack two things beginning right now and keep up the pressure. One is the answer to Biden’s question, exactly what we are for. And secondly, we need an overall theme that democracy, as we have known it, is being seriously eroded by the Democrats’ socialist/total government control agenda. The Democrats have zero accomplishments to campaign on so they are going to key on the 6 January hoodlums at the Capitol and imply that they are the voice of the Republican Party and their objective is to kill democracy. Hillary has already publicly stated that should be their game plan.

Last June, House Minority Leader, Keven McCarthy launched Commitment to America with seven task forces working the details. The objective is to pull together a proposed legislative agenda for 2023 that would also serve as a 2022 campaign platform. Great idea, but here is the problem. When completed it will undoubtedly be hundreds if not thousands of pages. More importantly, where the hell is it? We need it yesterday for the 2022 candidates.

Ms. Ronna McDaniel at the RNC needs a wake-up call. Someone there has been asleep at the switch. Let’s wake her up with about 20,000 emails tomorrow morning. Go to www.gop.com/contact-us/ and send them an email. Here is the one I just sent; please feel free to copy and paste:

The 2022 campaign is under way and we, the Republican Party, are not adequately prepared to win the most important election in decades.

Your website gives us a 50-page 2016 platform to work with! What have you been doing in 2021 to arm every local, state and federal candidate with a list of topics and talking points for 2022?

Talking points, in the hands of every candidate, will accomplish two vital objectives: First it will answer President Biden’s question, “What are the Republicans for?” which will become the battle cry for the Democrats from now until election day. Secondly, when the American people hear every Republican candidate singing from the same sheet of music, they will sense the commitment, honesty, intellegence and the compassion of the Republican Party towards every American in 2022.

You need to get to work and support every candidate with the arguments that will reassure Republican voters and win over new Democrats and Independents. This needs to be done right now.

Here is a scenario that I would like to see played out tomorrow morning at the RNC headquarters: The Admin Assistant (AA) to Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel (RM) goes in to see her boss and says, “Ms. McDaniel you have 20,000 new emails, do you want them sent to your computer?” RM, “20,000! What is the subject?” AA, “They all have the same theme, that is we are not on top of the 2022 campaign.” RM, “Send me a few.”

A few minutes later, RM to the AA, “Get all the senior staff in the conference room in 15 minutes and tell them to clear their calendars for the next 48 hours.”

RM in the conference room, “We are going to brainstorm the answer to Biden’s question, ‘What are the Republicans for? Here are the rules: everyone can speak but me, I will listen. There are no wrong answers, everything goes on the white board; there will be no debate at this time. Susan, you record the input on the white board, John, you type it all into your laptop.” 20 minutes later they have a list of what the Party stands for.

RM to the staff, “OK, now go back to item #1, Secure Borders. In phrase and sentence form, develop the talking points for Secure Borders. Susan at the white board, John capture it all on your laptop. We need fact-checked numbers to back up the verbiage.” And they proceed through the entire list for the remainder of the day.

RM to the staff, “OK, good work, we have talking points, every issue with talking points will become a one-page fact sheet.” RM makes each staff member responsible for three of the issues and then says, “Final draft of all fact sheets are to be completed by 4 pm tomorrow. A packet of all the fact sheets will be provided to each of you by close of business for you to review and comment on tomorrow evening. The day after tomorrow we go final with the fact-sheet package. Today I will contact every state Republican Party Chairperson, update them on this project and direct them to forward the finished product to every county chairperson with instructions to get a copy in the hands of every local, state and federal candidate that resides in their county by close of business three days from now. Two days from now we will reconvene in the conference room to begin the entire process over again answering the question, what is the Republican Party NOT for.

My point is, this is leadership 101, working this simple problem is not rocket science and can be accomplished this week but they need a kick in the butt to get them moving. Your emails is a kick in the butt.

17. Final thought on Immigration Reform: Mr. President and Madam Vice President, unless you were watching Fox News on 9 February, you probably don’t know that Border Patrol agents rescued (another in a long list) a 5-year-old unaccompanied little girl from Guatemala on the banks of the Rio Grande River. That little girl and the dedicated Border Patrol agents were lucky this time. But Mr. President and Madam Vice President, how many 5-year-old children were abandoned by some Cartel coyote, not rescued by our Border Patrol agents, and died along that river, alone, cold, hungry, frightened and calling out for their mother? Where is your compassion, your common sense? How can you turn a blind eye to the death, rape and suffering along the route to our southern border? How can you be driven by such an unethical, unamerican, politics-driven policy of open borders while two thirds of Americans disagree with the policy?

18. Readers, please send your email to the RNC right now. Thanks.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.

SPENDING AND DEBT REFORM

A mammoth, sprawling, uncontrollable federal government was never the vision or intent of the founding fathers. Organizations have a propensity to grow to a point of diminishing returns; it ceases to be efficient, effective and/or no longer performs the functions for which it was created. At that point a large organization will tend to look inward and become self-perpetuating rather than value added.
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 must get fixed. 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.

Secondly, 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.”

3. Before we launch into how to fix spending, a word about 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 is “not sustainable”, aka there will be a day of reckoning and it will be ugly.

It is difficult to get our minds around the almost $29 trillion debt. If you had stood on a street corner in 1960 handing out dollar bills, one dollar per second, you would just about now finish giving away the first billion dollars. Your federal government spends a billion dollars about every 8 hours, 24/7. You would be on that street corner for 62,000 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 1.8 million years. Unsustainable. We have to do something about spending and we have to change the way we think about debt.

4. A frontal assault on the Executive Branch could result in the first major attempt at reducing annual federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars; something the current Executive Branch and Congress collectively are incapable of doing.

The federal government can be fixed but it will take strong leadership, attention to detail and, if done properly, at least six months of hard work. The current administration is incapable of taking on this project. But fortunately, the Biden administration will eventually go away and when that happens it provides an opportunity for the Republican party and for the future of our country.

5. There was a time when the Republican Party stood for smaller government, states’ rights, strong defense, strict interpretation of the Constitution AND FISCAL CONSERVATISM. Politicians have moved away from being fiscally responsible. Just as was the case in 2016, the American people are looking for someone to lead us away from growing governmental control, cultural entitlement and out-of-control government spending aka uncontrolled taxation.

Reducing the size, reach, budget and influence of the sprawling Executive Branch should, become a major plank in every Republican congressional campaign this year leading on to the 2024 presidential election. Here is what needs to be accomplished now through June, 2025 in five phases.

6. Phase 1, Planning and Message Proliferation. Now through November 2024

a. Of the tens of thousands of Rip’s subscribers who are reading this, some of you know and can communicate with the Republican candidates for House and Senate seats this year. Those of you who believe the following program is necessary, encourage your candidate to make Spending and Debt Reform a priority in their campaign. If this happens, Spending and Debt Reform awareness will be set up across the nation for the 2024 presidential campaign.

b. There are Republican movers-and-shakers who have national influence and are frequently asked by the media to comment on policy and issues; three that come to mind are former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Governor Mike Huckabee and former presidential Special Advisor Karl Rove. Additionally, we can easily begin to make a list of potential 2024 presidential/vice presential candidates; for example, Senator Tom Cotton, Governor Ron DeSantis, former Governor Nikki Haley, President Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Kristi Noem. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other influential Republican stalwarts also need to be on the list. The point here is that those of you who know and can communicate with those on the list, should have a serious discussion with them about making Spending and Debt Reform an important addition to their political position from this date on through the 2024 election.

Comment on the above paragraph: This is by no means a complete list but I cannot recall a time when the Republican Party had such a strong bench of spokespersons and potential presidential/vice presidential candidates. The challenge is to get them focused on Spending and Debt Reform as a critical national issue before it is too late for this country.

7. Phase 2, 118^th Congress, January 2023-2025. When the 118^th Congress convenes, the newcomers should inculcate Spending and Debt Reform into daily Capitol Hill dialogue and become an issue for every piece of legislation.

8. Phase 3, The 2024 Presidential Campaign. All primary-election Republication candidates should be in agreement that Spending and Debt Reform is a critical issue facing the nation and if elected will make it a priority to execute the reform process. During the general-election campaign, the Republican presidential candidate will make it clear that the first priority for his/her vice president will be to lead Spending and Debt Reform execution.

9. Phase 4, Nominate Executive Branch Leaders, November, 2024-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.

10. Phase 5, Spending and Debt Reform Execution, January 2025-June 2025.

This will be a difficult process because we are talking about change, massive change. We must recognize that for any large organization, especially one as large as the Executive Branch, change is hard. 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 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 make them be all they can/should be.

First, 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.

Secondly, define the end state and end date for the campaign. For example, the VP might say, “Over the next six months 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, organization charts: 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 the 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.

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’ 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:

a. A one or two-sentence mission statement that describe 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’ job is to ask itself: 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 to the overall Department’s mission.

There are probably 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.

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

Task Force will look at the grade structure; 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)? Is the leader a “working leader” or just grading the papers of his/her subordinates and passing them up the chain?

c. 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 work week? Travel is very expensive.

d. What regulations guide your work?

After reviewing the answers to the other questions, it may become apparent that these regulations are no longer necessary. Another piece in getting the big organizational picture.

e. Product. A list, in single sentences, of major accomplishments in the past 12 months

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

f. A short statement of value added to the department of…..(agriculture). That is, “Without us the Department would not/could not do the following……….”

The Task Force review of the input is all about policy, practices, process, grade structure commensurate with overall responsibility, span of control, layering and value-added determination. When the VP randomly 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.

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 org 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. Education in America is a national disgrace and not getting better in spite of the hundreds of billions of tax dollars expended by the department since its inception 40 years ago.

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

11. CONCLUSIONS:

a. 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.”

b. 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 number of federal employees. The objective is to rid the government of “boxes” in the organization charts that have no “value added”, 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.

c. Why do all of this work? Two reasons: 1) 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 xx% personnel cut, neither of which make any sense nor achieves any positive results. 2) 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.

d. 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.

e. That budget is the sum of what all of the departments, agencies, councils, institutes, programs, foundations, services, authorities, offices of, boards and facilities 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 be downsized by billions of dollars.

f. There is also a states’ right 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 level. Federal over-reach tends to result in a one-size-fits-all approach to problem solving and it is usually ineffective and inefficient.

g. President Reagan got it right when he said: “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.”

12. 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 Obama and Biden administrations. This is a necessary, positive endeavor the Republican Party needs to embrace.

The vice president-led Spending and Budget Reform Task Force accomplishments will send a powerful message to Congress. Congress has become increasingly irresponsible over spending and debt. They need a wake-up call and if the Republican Party will campaign and win 2022/2024 with the Spending and Debt Reform message, the Congress will change.

IS PRESIDENT BIDEN GUILTY OF AIDING AND ABETTING?

For someone way past middle age, I have the advantage, as an adult, of perspective when it comes to comparing the overall performance of the last twelve presidents, JFK through Biden. I cannot recall anything as egregious, nonsensical, misleading, premeditated and unlawful(??) as what is happening since 20 January, 2021 on our southern border.

National security begins with border security. National security is enhanced by laws, policy, intent, and border security forces that are equal to the task. National security, and by extension, the safety of Americans is every president’s number one priority; or at least it has been until now.

President Trump campaigned on bringing order to the southern border. Through tireless efforts, doing battle with the Congress and the courts, he accomplished what he promised he would do.

On day-one President Biden opened the border with a dramatic statement by freezing all funds for border wall construction and terminating Trump’s national emergency declaration along the border. During the first four months in office, that decision accomplished two things; it cost taxpayers about $2 billion dollars and, most importantly, it sent a signal that the border is open.

For months, we have watched daily videos of illegal immigrant masses crossing the Rio Grande River, being met by Border Control agents, processed and transported to holding areas. To add insult to injury, all the while President Biden and his disciples are telling the American people, “The border is closed.” It goes beyond misrepresentation; it is an outright lie and everyone knows it is a lie.

But the numbers don’t lie. FY 21 ended with 1,734,686 illegal immigrant encounters, the highest total ever recorded in one year. Additionally, 21% were aliens who had been encountered before. Why not try again, this time the border is “open.”

If that is not bad enough, it is the other number that is exponentially more serious; that is, Border Patrol leaders estimate that perhaps hundreds of thousands entered and were not apprehended. Because the Border Patrol agents are routinely overwhelmed with masses of families and unaccompanied children voluntarily reporting to agents at regularly used crossing areas, literally hundreds of miles of border are not patrolled at all. In those areas the illegals entering are the criminals, MS13 gang members, terrorists and drug and human traffickers. They are a direct threat to our national security and safety of U.S. citizens.

The president and all of his border administrators understand all of this yet continue to insult our intelligence by insisting the situation is not a crisis and the border is not open.

But the situation gets worse by the day. We are battling a pandemic. An estimated 20-25% of the aliens are ill when they arrive which for many means Covid positive. Now it gets worse. Where are those 1.7 million that we know about? They have been relocated around the country on busses and planes. These people have not been tested or vaccinated for Covid. It is likely that many of those buses and planes were hauling a Covid super-spreader. Is anyone getting a sense of the hypocrisy relative to Biden’s Covid policies that are being pressed on citizens?

While vigorously supported by his Executive Branch principals and congressional Democrat leaders, why is our president allowing open borders? He and his minions refuse to answer that question and seem to believe we are all too stupid to figure it out. The reason is simple, votes; tens of millions of potential democrat voters. The second chapter to this insanity is currently contained in the Build Back Better legislation which contains a provision for amnesty for at least 7 million illegals. And of course, we all know that if that becomes reality it will establish a powerful precedent for follow-on amnesty programs.

Back to the title, IS PRESIDENT BIDEN GUILTY OF AIDING AND ABETTING? Noun: The act of helping, encouraging, or supporting someone in the commission of a crime. Verb: To actively encourage, to assist, or to support the commission of a criminal act. Seems pretty clear to me since every illegal immigrant is guilty of committing a federal offense.

Let’s take the allegations of aiding and abetting a step further with this question; IS THE PRESIDENT ALSO GUILTY OF VIOLATING HIS OATH OF OFFICE?

The presidential-mandated oath of office is found in Article II of the Constitution. It contains 35 words and begins as follows: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” That first sentence, in and of itself, is a commitment to all Americans that the president will take all necessary steps to keep foreign enemies out of our country.

We know, from data released by the Border Patrol, that they continue to apprehend illegals who are on our Terrorist Watch List. That list has existed since the attack on the United States, September 11, 2001, as we have been actively engaged in a global war on terrorism to keep our county safe. So, when President Biden willfully opens the borders and takes proactive steps to remove actions that were in place to inhibit illegal entry, isn’t he in violation of his oath of office to, “defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic?” Based on recent history, isn’t it crystal clear that if President Trump had perpetrated this dastardly charade he would have been impeached, convicted and be gone in his first six months?

Unintended consequences that the President and Vice President avoid talking about:

Too many of these aliens are not here for the “American dream”, they are here to partake of the American welfare system and it’s costing the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars for decades to come.

Drugs of all kinds are pouring across the border in tonnages never before experienced. For example, two pounds of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people; 130 pounds could kill everyone in the United States. By April, 2021 after Biden opened the border, 6,494 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the border, a 233% increase from the same period in 2020. The question is, how many tons of drugs came in undetected? Is anyone surprised that drug overdose deaths in America in 2021 topped 100,000 for the first time? Anyone in the Biden administration being held accountable?

How do Americans feel about what is happening every day on our southern border? Polling data tells us that only 25% of Americans approve of Bidens border policies; translation, tens of millions of democrats and independents join with republicans in disapproval. What we heard on 20 January is that, “I will be there for all the people”, not just 25%. The reality is to the contrary.

Parole Authority, a form of legal status given to illegal immigrants as they enter the U.S., provides them the ability to apply for work permits. Federal law says parole authority is to be used on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian purposes” and “significant public benefit.” A recently retired head of the Border Patrol said he would normally provide 5 or 10 parole authority documents per year. The Biden administration is issuing them by the tens of thousands. Urgent purposes? Are they breaking another federal law?

The Cartel is one of the biggest crime organizations in the world. The cartel is one of the biggest drug manufactures in the world. Cartels control the border. They determine who, what, when, where and how much it will cost to cross the border. Costs range from $1300 to $10,000 depending on the migrants’ nationality. Illegal immigration has become a major revenue stream for the cartels. Have you heard President Biden address this cartel issue? Neither have I. It is just another item in his too-hard box.

There is one more important but unintended consequence of this whole border mess. We now have confirmation that Vice President Harris is pretty much a zero when it comes to planning, commitment, leadership, honesty and communications and that President Biden appears to be OK with that outcome. We should be worried about what that portends for the future of this administration and our country

How can this administration get away with all of these lies, the deceit and deception? One answer has to do with the fourth estate. The term “fourth estate” is often attributed to British politician Edmund Burke who observed, “There were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than them all.”

In the United States, the term fourth estate has been used to place the press alongside the three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. The fourth estate refers to the watchdog role of the press, one that is important to a functioning democracy.

Watchdog, a proper graphic term. Unfortunately, its importance to the proper functioning of our democracy has diminished to the point that it is now, performing a divisive disservice to the every-day functioning of our government.

The journalists in the U.S. are not stupid, blind or unaware of what is happening on our southern border. But their leaders in the main-stream media, for the most part, have become so politicized they have completely lost the capability to perform the once-vaunted fourth estate role. Honesty, integrity, just doing the right thing are gone from reporting. We the people are being lied to and misinformed on a daily basis.

But the most insidious power the media has is the power to ignore. And that is what is happening today with respect to the illegal immigration problems. With the exception of a few news papers and TV news sources, the main-street media goes out of its way every day to provide cover for the Biden administration, across the board democrat leadership and the democrat/liberal establishment.

But the problem goes much deeper. With the media providing cover for bad decisions, bad policy and lackluster leadership, the administration, the Congress, the bureaucracy feels safe operating with accountability. Without accountability an organization and all it/they control will begin to lose its foundation, its honesty, its integrity, its vitality and spirit. Morale goes down the crapper.

Conclusions:

President Biden is culpable for what is happening and what is not happening at the border.
For the Biden/Harris administration to not recognize the humanitarian crisis that has existed during his months in office is reprehensible; the rape, crime, unsanitary conditions and suffering during the long journey. Consider the trauma associated with an estimated 180,000 unaccompanied children, many of them found alone and only 5 or 6 years old. Where is the compassion? This is not who we are as a compassionate and benevolent nation.
In our daily lives we are rarely able to have all we want, when we want it and that leads to prioritization. With respect to the illegal immigration issue, the Biden administration has prioritized and placed an atmosphere of control over what is best for we the people and our great nation. They are not stupid and during quiet, reflective moments most of them perhaps see and understand that they are not right, not supporting us, not properly providing for our security. But they are driven by a philosophic underpinning of control and power at any cost. Control the people, control the government, control future power.
At least for the present, President Biden will not be held accountable for aiding and abetting criminal activity on our southern border or for violating his oath of office.

WHERE IS AMERICA HEADED AS OF NOVEMBER, 2021?

Many today look at the too-far-left democrat party and declare that they are trying to create a socialist state. With the exception of Bernie Sanders, I do not necessarily believe the Biden administration set out to create a socialist America. Having said that we need to take a deep breath and look at the current direction of the U.S. Are we headed for socialism?

First, we can look at the short-hand version….Eight Steps to Socialism. This list is commonly attributed to Saul Alinsky; however, this particular list did not appear in either of his two books. Whomever actually wrote it, it is a pretty scary list.

Saul Alinsky (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) was an American community activist and political theorist. Alinsky synthesized his theory of political agitation is his famous 1971 book, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. His book is considered a founding text of modern community organizing and a classic of radical-leftist agitation-propaganda theory. Barack Obama received a comprehensive course in Saul Alinsky during his years as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience Obama recalled as “The best education he ever had.”

The Alinsky equation is summarized in his famous Rule # 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Can this happen in our great country? Consider the Obama/Biden rhetoric about wealthy Americans (although they both are in that category); make the rich a target and scapegoat for all of our ills, divide and conquer, demonize some to extract power for others.

Obama and Biden have both told us, countless times, that their intent is to “transform America.” The Alinsky model is certainly transformative. BTW another prominent Democrat, Hillary Clinton, has also often been linked with Alinsky because she wrote her senior thesis entitled “An Analysis of the Alinsky Model” while she was a student at Wellesley College in 1969. Anyone surprised?

Here are the Eight Steps to Socialism, read them and draw your own conclusions about the Obama/Biden transformation:

1)Healthcare– Control healthcare and you control the people.
2) Poverty – Increase the poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control– Remove the ability to defend themselves from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (food, housing, and income).
6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
7) Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the government and schools
8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to tax the wealthy with the support of the poor.

Does any of this sound like what is happening to the United States? Whomever actually wrote the 8 steeps, merely simplified Vladimir Lenin’s original scheme for world conquest by communism. Joseph Stalin described his Russian converts as “Useful Idiots.” Is that what we are becoming?

Back to the title of this piece, WHERE IS AMERICA HEADED AS OF NOVEMBER, 2021? At its core socialism is about economics. To accomplish those eight steps a number of economic factors and action should be considered.

MASSIVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING, what are the consequences (I will continue to emphasize this word)? Spending, in and of itself, is not always bad, for example massive government spending for the “New Deal” in the 1930s was unprecedented and served a specific purpose to solve a specific problem, that problem being the Great Depression with its 25% unemployment. The goal was, “relief, recovery and reform.”

The New Deal spending was designed to put millions back to work and the work was to produce the likes of dams, national parks, infrastructure. For example, the Civilian Conservation Corps hired 4 million workers over nine years to conserve public lands, plant forests, build dams and maintained roads and trails. The Works Progress Administration put 8.5 million people to work. When a project was completed, the spending stopped. Each project provided a positive for every American.

Consequences? New Deal spending along with the onset of World War II rapidly took the U.S. out of the depression and transformed America into an energetic, confident, prosperous and envied world leader.

Contrast the positive and lasting impact of the New Deal with the potential consequences of massive spending today:

It will continue to increase the size of an already massive federal government bureaucracy.
Much of the new massive spending is for new entitlements which will continue to grow, the funding for which will never end and will never be scaled back.
Entitlements lead to unprecedented government control over the daily lives of every American, cradle to grave.
With size and control, comes government regulations and the resulting negative impact on entrepreneurial spirit and economic growth.
Massive federal regulation and control leads to reduced states’ rights.
And most importantly today’s massive spending is a stake in the heart of perhaps the most important 55 words ever written: Thomas Jefferson wrote in our Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today’s massive federal government spending powers are certainly not based on “consent of the governed” but we the people are on the hook to pay for every cent of this spending

INCREASED TAX BURDENS are the consequences of massive government spending. Corporate taxes, wealth taxes, death taxes, increased individual income taxes on the wealthy, taxes on capital gains and perhaps taxes on unrealized capital gains. All of these taxes targeting the wealthy to pay their (yet to be defined by Biden) “fail share.” Consequences of massive tax increases are reduced capital investment (the life-blood of capitalism), disincentivization to expand and grow, reduced entrepreneurial spirit and the rich moving their wealth out of the U.S. Yes, the rich can leave; France thought it was a great idea to soak the rich with high taxes and, in 2016 alone, over 12,000 millionaires departed their homeland. France has been forced to back off on their taxing-the-rich policies.

The bottom-line consequences of overtaxing the rich are REDUCED GROWTH LEADING TO ECONOMIC STAGNATION. Over the last 20 years, the European Union, which featured socialist and semi-socialist states, had almost zero economic growth.

DEBT and the consequences therein. A highly reliable measure of a nation’s economic wellness is to look at the ratio of debt compared to its productivity. When Obama took office, January 2009 the U.S. ratio of debt to GDP was about 77%, considered reasonable and far below other industrial nations. Today, after a decade-plus of deficit spending our debt to GDP ratio is about 127%. When over 100% it speaks volumes about our ability or inability to repay the debt. Consequences? Additionally, a 2013 study by the World Bank found that if the debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 77% for an extended period, it slows economic growth.

INCREASING THE MONEY SUPPLY consequences: Massive spending leads us down the path to artificially increasing the nation’s money supply, aka “printing money.” In 2020, the money supply was increased by almost $4 trillion, by far the largest annual expansion in U.S. history. Consequences: increasing the money supply beyond the needs of economic growth leads to inflation and in many countries, it has led to hyperinflation. Venezuela’s inflation, for example, has risen by over 1 million per cent. But, you say, that can’t happen here. It already has. During the Civil war, the Confederacy of southern states found itself short of finances (it could only raise 46% of the cost of war from taxes and bonds) so it increased the printing of money to pay for materials and soldiers. However, with economic output falling, this caused inflation of 700% in the first two years of war and reaching a peak of over 5000% by 1865.

CONCLUSIONS: The above economic factors, massive spending, massive tax increases, out-of-control national debt and printing trillions of dollars are not necessarily sequential actions and activities; they sometimes overlap and feed off each other’s momentum. But at some point, there is enough confluence of these economic factors that the totality becomes overwhelming, uncontrollable and perhaps irreversible. That is what the Congressional Budget Office keeps telling us when they conclude that the massive government spending, entitlements and debt are “unstainable.”

What has happened in just the past ten months has caused alarm bell to ring loud and clear. More and more of us are asking what is going on, where are we headed, what will our country be like in the next few years? Optimism is waning. Our feel-good spirit is being crushed. Is the “American dream” no longer a possibility? This is not a good place for a country to be.

It is as though President Biden climbed to the top of a very large snow-covered hill on 20 January, made a big round snow ball and tossed it down the hill. We watch it roll and grow in size (government). We see it gaining weight (government control). Half way down the hill it becomes obvious that it is becoming an uncontrollable mass (thousands of pages of multi-trillion-dollar legislation that no one has read) that may have the potential to be a destructive force to all classes of Americans. That is, a disincentivized wealthy class as government takes an ever-increasing percent of their wealth to the point that there is no more to take. Destruction of the middle class as the need for more and more taxes negatively impacts their well-being and kills their entrepreneurial spirit. At the lower end of the spectrum are the masses that will have lived every phase of their life with a government handout; child care, rent, housing, heating, cell phone, food, paid time off, unemployment compensation, medical, education, social security. Cradle to grave generational dependence and none of it requires recipients to get a job.

Surely socialism cannot happen to America. But, what if…..

What if we cannot stop printing money?
What if we cannot control today’s inflation and it begins increasing by factors of tens or hundreds (as it has in so many countries in recent history)?
What if we do nothing about deficit spending and national debt ($28 trillion now) that is increasing at a rate of $45.5 per second!!?
What if interest rates go to 6% and the interest on our debt consumes so much of the budget that we cannot provide for an adequately sized, trained and ready military force for national security?
What if all of the above leads our enemies to conclude that we have reached the point of no return and are vulnerable to multiple attacks by various means?
What if social security goes broke (currently scheduled to be insolvent by 2033)?
What if Medicare goes broke (currently scheduled to be insolvent by 2026)?
What happens if the government checks stop coming to the masses who have become government dependent?
What if the wealthy find a way to hide their wealth or find a new place to live (as previously mentioned, in 2016 France lost over 12,000 millionaires because of the exorbitant wealth tax)?
What if our borders remain unsecure and the world’s masses become ours to feed, cloth, house, educate, and care for?
What if Medicare-for-all becomes reality with an estimated yearly cost $3.2 trillion?
Etc.

This is not just my personal what-if list, this has become the concern of millions of Americans, especially our middle class, the greatest middle class in world history. What is happening before our eyes could cause our middle class to become nonexistent.

The United States is not, currently, a socialist nation. Our economic vitality remains generally decentralized which is a necessity for a stable republic. But as the power of government grows our rights correspondingly diminish and ultimately socialism is maintained by force.

History, of course, is not a pre-determined straight line. Wise leaders have steered civilizations away from bad decisions. Are we blessed with a wise leader today? Just take a quick look back 10 months and you draw your own conclusions.

On 20 January, 2021 the nation listened to President Biden’s impassioned inauguration speech about being a leader for all Americans and that the centerpiece of his administration would be to bring unity to America. The immediate reviews of the speech by all media and most politicians were glowing accolades. But before the ink was dry on praise for his words, he was busy at his desk, also on 20 January, signing the first of 40 executive orders he would issue in his first two weeks in office.

For the most part those executive orders were specifically designed to counter Trump initiatives, policies, and accomplishments. Remember, in November, 2020, 73.6 million Americans voted for Trump and that total was 7 million more than any sitting president in history had received. My sense is that a significant portion of the 73.6 million votes were not cast because they liked his tweets, personality or leadership style; they voted for Trump because of the numerous policies he put in place that positively impacted all Americans. How did Biden’s knee-jerk actions in the first 48 hours contribute to his “unity” promise? Within 48 hours our country had transitioned from a Trump-promises-made, promises-kept administration to a promises-made, promises-go-to-hell Biden intent. That’s authoritarianism in a nut shell. That’s power and control personified. That’s a formula for tearing down this great country and it seems to be working out just as planned. Do we have a leader we can believe in, who we can trust, who is looking out for the best interest of every American?

“The borders are closed.”

“We have gotten control of the border.”

“I have been to the border before; I know it well.”

“We will get all Americans out of Afghanistan.”

The Afghanistan evacuation was, “most extraordinary.”

“If you make less than $400,000 a year, you will not pay one more cent in taxes.”

“My Build Back Better agenda costs zero dollars.”

President Biden, 2021

CONSEQUENCES. I took the liberty to highlight that word with underline throughout this missive. Why? What I have attempted to portray is the reality of our potential future. “Reality the quality or state of being actual or true.” Reality is something we have to debate individually by relying on history, research and the wisdom of others. I leave you then with this thought. Every day in his publications, Rip McIntosh, who I am proud to call my friend, leaves us with this important message…. “You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of reality.” Ayn Rand

Think about the potential consequences of what is happening to our great nation, draw some conclusions and, if appropriate, speak out against the reality and the consequences.

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT, SAFETY NET OR ENTITLEMENT

At its core, America has been the home of the brave, land of the free, be all you can be, benevolent, compassionate nation. That is our greatness. That is what has made the United States the envy of the world for the last 200 years.

But we are losing it. We are moving at warp speed down a path that will crumble the foundations of our nation forever. What is happening today, right before our eyes, can dramatically and negatively impact every family in America and it is unlikely that we will be able to fully recover. We have to stop thinking that we can just wait for the 2022 and 2024 elections to get back on track. The future of America is being defined right now and its very ugly.

Socialism is being defined in so many ways by so many people today as we watch Biden/Pelosi/Schumer act out this charade. At its heart socialism is about economics. Economics rule our daily lives beginning at the kitchen table where mom and pop work out the budget.

Let’s go back to the title of this missive, THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT, SAFETY NET OR ENTITELMENT?

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT, unconstrained growth, greater bureaucratic intervention in our daily lives, taking away personal choice, dictating what we must and/or cannot say, measuring success by the number of Americans receiving some form of government welfare? That list is getting longer and more controlling every day. We are becoming government-run robots. Is that Build Back Better?

SAFETY NET is what this country has always been about with its compassionate and benevolent culture. Safety nets are for those who face circumstances beyond their control and are in need of temporary, or in some cases permanent outside assistance. It begins with family assistance, transitions to community assistance and when necessary to state and/or federal help. Safety nets kick in after the fact, after the need for personal help manifests itself. It is not preemptory. It is not a net spread over the country and engaged whether needed or not. Safety net is not a solution in search of a problem.

ENTITLEMENTS always start small and rapidly grow. Medicaid was once a safety-net program but now, for example, covers 37% of Californians. Medicare started as a program for seniors; democrats now want to cover everyone over age 55 while the socialists want Medicare for all.

Social Security is on a path to become insolvent in the early 2030s, with only enough money to cover about 80 percent of its obligation. Medicare would become insolvent by 2026, if no changes are made to payroll taxes or how health providers are paid.

In 2019 entitlements consumed 56% of the federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office tells us spending on the three big entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is growing unchecked on autopilot. By 2028, spending on these programs alone will claim over 73 percent of all federal revenues.

While these programs are simply unsustainable in their current form, President Biden’s expanded welfare-state could take us over the cliff to an unsustainable fiscal future.

THE BERNIE SANDERS/BIDEN MODEL FOR AMERICA: The liberals/progressives/socialists look to European countries as enviable models of welfare states. But the facts tell a different story. For example, U.S. labor participation rates in 2019 were 62.6% while 49.7% in Italy, 55% in France, and so it is in all the social democrat countries. Why work when the government will send you a monthly check not to work? Labor participation plays a significant role in a country’s economic growth. Even under the tax-and-spend economic policies of the Obama/Biden administration the U.S. GDP averaged 2.3% growth. During that same period, GDP growth in Italy, Spain, France and Germany averaged a weak 1.6%.

Another insane program that impacts economic growth in socialist Europe is their family leave policies. Italy offers 22 weeks maternity leave at 80% of previous earnings, France 16 weeks at 90%, Spain 16 weeks at 100% and so it goes across the European welfare states.

What the liberals who are impressed with Europe’s welfare state don’t tell you is that long ago they tapped out the wealthy or forced them to take their money and depart so the middle class is paying the bills. The favorites are value added taxes (about 20%) and payroll taxes. The combined employer/employee social security tax rate is 36% in Spain, 40% Italy, 65% France. The result is that several of these countries are now desperately trying to figure out how to reform their tax and welfare systems in order to be competitive in the global marketplace and to grow their GDP.

BIDEN’S MANDATE? There is a separate but important issue associated with Biden’s dash to complete the welfare state. First let’s think back to the 2016 election wherein Trump told us exactly what he was going to do for us (for us as opposed to, to us). You know the list, fix immigration, kill Isis, cut taxes, hammer NATO members to pony up, etc. He got elected on that message and then, something unusual happened, he kept every campaign promise.

By stark contrast, Biden and Bernie Sanders met in July 2020 as Biden emerged as the presidential candidate. They agreed on a 100-page liberal program but Biden did not campaign on those issues. He was elected on an anti-trump, national unity, raising taxes and Covid agenda. Biden has absolutely no national election mandate to take this country down the dangerous, potentially ruinous welfare state path we are on.

BIDEN’S WELFARE PLAN, safety net or buying votes? Over the first few months of his administration, he has given us bits at a time of his thinking on developing and perpetuating his welfare state. Keep in mind that these programs will get stacked on top of the 80 existing federal programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care, social services, training, and targeted education aid to poor and low-income Americans.

Paying families to raise a child. $3,600 allowance for children up to 6 years old and then $3,000 per year through age 17. This is not just for the poor and disadvantaged; payments go out to couples earning $150,000. A monthly check for about 70 million kids!! A very expensive safety net?
“Free” universal preschool for about 5.5 million children ages 3-4. A Biden version of a safety net?
Provides for the largest child tax credit ever. Any semblance to a safety net here?
Subsidized child care to be “extended for years to come.” Under this plan, the average American family with young children may save $14,800 a year on child care. How did America survive for a couple hundred years without this safety net?
Two years of (here’s that word again) “free” community college for everyone. Safety net welfare? Come on man
A program for people taking leave because they or a family member are sick, welcoming a new child, or dealing with sexual assault or domestic violence. It would provide up to $4,000 a month, and up to 80 percent of full wages for the lowest earners during that period. Safety net for what? How many generations of Americans have done just fine without this?

These are classic examples of a temporary helping hand that will become an entitlement. And it remains to be seen if there are more giveaways hidden in the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better package still under consideration. By the way, imagine 25 100-count reams of paper stacked up; that’s the size of the printed bill and it works out to $1.4 billion per page. And, by the way do you believe for a minute that anyone in Congress has read it?

There are a number of lies associated with these programs. Our President has told us universal child care for 5.5 million children and community college tuition for everyone are “free”. Of course, that is not true, nothing is free. Also, about the $3.5 trillion bill, he tells us, “It is zero price tag on the debt. We’re going to pay for everything we spend.”

WELFARE HISTORY LESSON AND A BETTER WAY FORWARD: The liberals, many of them in Congress during the 1990s could take a page from the Clinton presidency and provide an entirely different approach to welfare. President Clinton once commented that, “Welfare should be a second chance not a way of life.”

With that attitude and pronouncement President Clinton worked hand-in-glove with the Republican Congress, led by Speaker Newt Gingrich to pass The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Some of the provisions are as follows: 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. The program added work requirements for aid, shrinking the number of adults who could qualify for benefits. It also created caps for how long and how much aid a person could receive, as well as instituting harsher punishments for recipients who did not comply with the requirements.

They asked parents to either work, go to school, or get job training in order to get welfare. This simple reform had incredible results. Welfare enrollment significantly declined for the first time since the War on Poverty started in 1965. Employment shot up, especially among single mothers who didn’t graduate from high school. Child poverty, which hadn’t budged in decades, fell faster than ever before. By connecting welfare to work, Congress gave hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families a better shot at a better life.

Instead of “Welfare-to-Work,” today’s liberals are all welfare, no work. This approach creates long-term dependency rather than creating a productive future.

One of the clearest lessons learned from Covid is that given the choice of going back to work or staying home waiting for the government check, millions stayed home while small businesses could not get up and running for lack of employees. Studies show that long-term unemployment makes it harder for those employees to ever return to work.

By stacking on more welfare programs families will be trapped in poverty, when what they really need is a chance to prosper.

Some good advice from Nikki Haley, former South Carolina Governor: Between unemployment-insurance bonuses and child-allowance welfare checks, Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress want to end the commonsense, work-focused safety net. Their argument is that no-strings-attached checks will reduce child poverty. They won’t. Long term, this policy will push more people out of the economy and onto society’s sidelines.

This isn’t to say that our current safety net is perfect. The current system — which consists of over 80 redundant programs and runs up a trillion-dollar-tab every year — is too costly, too complex, and so poorly designed that it fails millions of families every year. By all means, America needs to reexamine and reform welfare to empower as many people as possible.

Safety nets can only work when they help people today while preparing them for tomorrow

In April 2018, President Trump signed the Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility, executive order which ordered government secretaries to review their existing welfare programs and propose new regulations. It is believed that these new regulations would focus on cuts, including stronger work requirements. Of course, Biden immediately flushed that one down the toilet.

DEBT. We cannot think about the on-coming welfare state and more entitlements without also dealing with the elephant in the room….Debt. How much debt is too much? I believe that a reasonable answer would be that when the debt exceeds the gross domestic product it is too large and out of control. National debt on 20 January, 2021 was about $21.6 trillion while the 2020 GDP was about $20.9 trillion. Deficit spending in 2021 has already put the U.S. in red figures for debt v GDP. Deficit spending in FY 2021 is expected to be at least $2.8 trillion.

WHY WE SHOULD BE AFRAID OF WHAT IS COMING AT US: An illustration:

A family sits down at the kitchen table to work on the annual budget:

They know their current credit card debt is $541,287.
They know their income will be $68,703 (medium family income in the U.S.).
They plan to spend $131,620 in the next 12 months.
They figure ($131,620 minus $68,703) they will have to put another $62,917 on the credit card.
Conclusion: this family is nuts!

STOP, do not go on reading until you have digested those numbers. Yes, this is an insane scenario; the bad news is, those numbers–income, debt, spending, borrowing–relatively speaking, accurately represent what our federal government leaders are doing right now.

Perhaps by now some, maybe many, of you are thinking, Covault has finally gone off the deep end with all the above prognostications that the country could be just days or weeks from going under.

My rebuttal: This country cannot go on forever with the kind of fiscal nonsense illustrated by the above family budget. We will reach a point of no return at some point and it just might be now with all the junk included in the bills that have not even been read, let alone vetted by expert witnesses in a series of Congressional hearings.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Resolve is driven by economics. There are about 10 million jobs unfilled in the U.S. right now. The Covid lesson learned is that, for millions of Americans, they will resolve to go get a job, but only if the government checks stop coming. What is it about the word disincentivize that liberals don’t understand?

All this should make one wonder how the so-called Democrat politicians can believe that higher taxes and more social welfare is a viable path to Build Back Better when there is not a single example in the industrial world of a country prospering from such a plan. And then Biden/Pelosi/Schumer berate Republicans for opposing this insanity by announcing that our opposition makes us, “complicit in America’s decline.”

Many of America’s problems stem from this: Politicians share one thing in common, they are profoundly self-interested, cannot see or plan beyond the next election and see themselves as blameless and unaccountable.

Fiscal suicide by a thousand cuts. Yes, some entitlements are necessary; the problem is they tend to grow in both size and in number. It is not beyond reason to assume that Biden’s proposals could ramp up entitlement spending this decade to perhaps 80% or more of federal spending. When that happens, disposable revenue to cover all other government requirements will get slashed to the bone. The first big-ticket item to fall under the axe will be national defense. At that point we become increasingly vulnerable to attack in so many ways from China, Russia, North Korea and/or Iran.

BOTTOM LINE: What Biden is doing TO AMERICA, not FOR AMERICA, was succinctly summed up by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, 7 October: “America escaped from its 1970s decline by returning to its historic model of liberating private initiative and enterprise. Biden’s plan would empower the government, pile burdens on the private economy and erode upward mobility by encouraging people not to work, that’s the real recipe for decline.”

It’s time to wake the hell up America, our once great country is being redefined now, in the days and weeks ahead, and it is destructive and ugly.

WHAT SECRETARY AUSTIN AND GENERAL MILLEY DID NOT COVER TODAY

Today, 28 September Sec Def Austin and JCS Chairman Gen Milley appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The subject was the retrograde from Afghanistan.

To be clear, I did not watch the entire proceeding; but I did hear them explain “The Plan.” I paraphrase, The Plan, locked in last spring, was to 1) scale down combat operations, 2) recover excess military equipment and 3) withdraw U.S. military forces, in that order.

When asked about the part of The Plan that covered evacuation of U.S. noncombatants, they admitted it was not part of their plan. The Plan, they said, was properly executed as written.

Here is where I begin to criticize The Plan:

When putting together a plan of this complexity planners never have a completely factual base of information with which to work. In the absence of facts, they are compelled to make some assumptions in order to have a complete picture of the proposed operation. Assumptions are dangerous critters and every military planner above the grade of 2^nd Lieutenant knows that.

Time sequencing the planning process conducted by the Central Command (the Combatant Command encompassing the Middle East area of operations) should have looked about like this:

First is the list of facts (e.g., how much stuff to haul out of country, how many military personnel are there, what is the time-line, how many cargo aircraft required, how many air tankers will it take, where will everything and everyone go, you get the picture). Easy stuff.

While the first step is underway, in the back of ever planners mind are the assumptions. At this point they may not necessarily even be written down. But when the first draft of The Plan gets briefed up the chain of command, the assumptions will begin to get aired. It goes like this: The Colonel taking the briefing says to the briefer, “As we begin to withdraw U.S. forces the Taliban will undoubtedly want to fill that void. Will the ANA (Afghan National Army) be able to hold their ground?” That is an example of a series of question that would be raised and have to get answered before the briefing can go any further up the chain of command.

The planning staff goes back to the drawing board and now begins to put together, in writing, a set of assumptions that fill in the big picture in the absence of facts.

During that process, these three huge assumptions would undoubtedly have surfaced: 1) It is assumed that the ANA will, generally speaking, be capable of holding the ground currently in their possession. 2) It is assumed that the current fully-functioning Afghan Government will continue to exist following the withdrawal. And 3) the U.S. Embassy will remain in place for the foreseeable future and, by extension, U.S. citizens spread about the country will continue with their work.

Continuing with the briefing process: The briefer, now addressing a more senior officer, will begin by saying, “In the absence of facts to the contrary, this plan is based on the following assumptions…..” There will be a lot of them, but let’s just focus on the big three: the ANA, Afghan Government and the U.S. Embassy.

From the testimony today by Austin and Milley, it is now obvious that they believed the answer to the big-three assumptions was yes, the ANA will fight, yes, the Afghan government will continue to function and yes, the U.S. Embassy is there for the long-haul. In retrospect that was an enormous mistake and failure of current intelligence, or misread of current intelligence or simply not listening to experts on the ground. For example, in July 23 U.S. Embassy officials sent cables to Washington telling the Biden administration that the Taliban would likely re-take control if the U.S. military departed. It now appears that the powers-that-be just rolled ahead with The Plan hoping it would all be OK. But, as the saying goes, hope is not a process.

At this point in the months-long planning process, those three critical assumptions should have been discussed, investigated and would have fallen into the category of Center-of-Gravity issues. Definition: A Center-of-Gravity can be a person, place, thing or circumstance that, in and of itself, is central to success of the plan. Or, stated another way can cause partial or complete failure of a plan.

Once planners understand the critical nature of an assumption, they should then move on to the next step in the planning process; development of contingency plans. A contingency is simply the answer to the question, what if. What if the ANA folds under fire? What if the Afghan President exits stage-left in the middle of the night and the government ceases to function? What if the total U.S. Embassy has to be evacuated under duress?

At that point, the briefing is a complete product. The key to success is that the contingency planning becomes an integral part of The Plan. When that happens the contingency plans get resourced before the fact so that The Plan is prepared to deal with all known and imagined issues that unfold during the heat of battle. For example, the contingency plan for evacuation of all U.S noncombatants would have included a tasker to the State Dept to determine and report, before the fact, the exact number to be evacuated, their exact locations and their ability or inability to get to Bagram Air Base in an emergency.

If these contingency plans had been in place during the withdrawal fiasco last month, the Center of Gravity for each contingency would have been for the U.S. to retain complete control of Bagram Air Base right up to the last flight out of country.

At this point, many of you may be thinking, OK Covault, this is all Monday-morning-quarterbacking, anyone could have come up with this critique a month after the withdrawal. I disagree because what I have described above is what U.S. Army (I will speak only for my Service) officers are taught to do. They spend an entire year at the Command and General Staff College as majors studying, learning and doing this type of planning with every factor I have laid out above. More senior officers spend another year at the Army War College thinking through this exact type of planning problem involving Joint U.S. forces, other government agencies (CIA, State Dept, etc.), the United Nations and combined operations with other nations’ armed forces. I didn’t just dream this up the above planning scenario, this is what we do and how we are taught to think.

A word about the National Security Council. Deputies and staff work full time in the NSC, but during critical issues the NSC “principals” meet; i.e., the President, VP, Department heads, CIA, Chairman JCS, etc. If The Plan as I have outlined it above was presented to the NSC Principals by Sec Def Austin and Chairman JCS Milley and then disregarded by President Biden, my conclusion is that they did about all they could do.

But, if The Plan they briefed did not lay out the assumptions and contingencies, in my opinion they failed the President and the country. And when military leaders as that level fail, people needlessly die. And they did die.

The future ramifications of the Afghan withdrawal fiasco are yet to come to fruition, but It appears certain that Afghanistan could again become a focal point for intensified global terrorism with the United States as a specific target. Additionally, it is becoming clearer every day that our allies have lost confidence in the U.S. and our enemies have lost respect for our capabilities. Summed up, that equals increased vulnerability and that means a less secure America.

$3.5 TRILLION WORTH OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS

In 2010, during a news conference concerning the Affordable Care Act, Speaker Pelosi made perhaps the dumbest statement ever about a piece of pending legislation: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” And it was only 2700 pages long. Well, she is at it again but this time the issue is exponentially more complicated and dangerous. At issue is the $3.5 trillion reconciliation, democrat-led wish list that is being processed in Congress at warp speed. Congressional committees are rushing through a mark-up in order to meet Pelosi’s scheduled House vote on 27 September.

There are five enormously important individual issues at play right now with the Biden administration and the Congress; 1) how Congress uses and/or abuses its legislative process, 2) entitlements, 3) taxes, 4) debt and 5) the impact on the overall economy. These issues, rolled together, may perhaps in days, not months or years, dictate the future of our country and it’s not a pretty picture.

CONGRESS’ LIES AND DECEPTION: First of all, it is a stretch to believe that this reconciliation method should even be in play. To qualify for passage under reconciliation any provision in the bill is supposed, “to affect the budget in a way that is more than incidental.” There are more and more indications that many of the proposals are not even budget related.

The processing of this bill disregards a couple hundred years of rules, protocols and tradition. Discussions of the specifics of a bill are to begin in the various committees with testimony from expert witnesses in open session laying out the pros and cons of moving forward. Committee members will discuss the issues, offer and debate amendments and finally vote as to whether or not the bill should be brought to the House or Senate floor for further consideration and a vote.

This bill is reportedly about 10,000 pages long. No one will read it. No one will know what all is buried inside the bill. The majority of the issues will not even be exposed before Pelosi’s 27 September vote. The American public will even be more clueless than our elected officials (if that is even possible). Issues costing hundreds of billions of dollars will not see the light of day, perhaps for months after the bill is passed.

Before diving in we should at least ask the question; is it really $3.5 trillion? For sure no one knows the answer because the hundreds of proposals included in the 10,000 pages have not been vetted. There are experts who are now suggesting is could be as much as $5.5 trillion. Let me give you a little perspective on $3.5 and $5.5 trillion. The whole federal budget 2021 was $4.8 trillion and the federal revenue was $3.8 trillion. About $3 trillion of the spending was mandatory entitlement. And now we are talking about a single bill that is potentially larger than an annual budget?

ENTITLEMENTS: The headline issues in the bill that have been reported are expanding Medicare and Medicaid, child care, preschool, more food stamps, 12-week family and medical for all workers and free community college. What do they all have in common? They will become entitlements. Entitlements are dangerous because they have two things in common; the never go away and they grow.

Fifty years ago (when Medicare and Medicaid were new programs) about 36% of federal spending was some form of welfare for individuals as compared with today at about 80%. Now consider the headliners in this bill (more Medicare, more Medicaid, child care, preschool, more food stamps, 12-week family and medical for all workers, and free community college.) These are new entitlements that will grow and not go away. The Congressional Budget Office has previously declared that additional entitlements are “not sustainable.” Where is the Congressional debate, where are the expert witnesses, are these necessary for our country to succeed? At what entitlement percentage point, 85%, 90%, 95%, are we obliged to admit that we live in a welfare state?

One way to describe some of what is supposedly in this bill is to say it is the culmination of Obama’s life-long plan for America. Recall the hot-mike while campaigning for president in 2008; Obama was asked by Joe-the-plumber about his goal for America. Obama summed it up by saying he, “wanted to spread the wealth around.” Well, that is certainly where we are headed .

HOW DO WE PAY FOR A $3.5- $5.5 TRILLION BILL? Taxes, taxes and more taxes. The House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance committees are hard at work putting together the largest tax increase since 1968.

At the top of the list is corporate tax. Before the Trump presidency, U.S. corporate tax was the highest in the developed world and it must be looked at for what it is exactly; it is a cost of producing a product, just like wages and raw materials. And just like every other cost it gets passed on to we-the-people, rich and poor. By extension, a high corporate tax makes us less competitive in the global market place. Trump reduced the tax from 35% to 21% resulting in higher wages, GDP growth and renewed global competitiveness. Biden will increase corporate tax to 31%; congratulation U. S. We will be back to the highest rate among developed nations.

The top income tax rate will go up from 37% to 39.6% and kick in at $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for married couples. For those making over $5 million, there will be a 3% surcharge. For the high-bracket folks living in California and New York, the governments will be taking about 60% of your income. The fuel for capitalism is investment capital. Where does it come from? From folks who have a lot of money and don’t have a large enough mattress to hide it under. They are the source for investment and what happens when the federal government, through taxes and disincentivization, takes it away? GDP growth is negatively impacted.

Small businesses that pay through the individual tax code will pay the highest rate plus a new 3.8% surtax. The death tax exemption level will be cut in half. Higher tobacco taxes for everyone. And don’ forget about the inflation “tax”; July 2021 prices are 5.4% higher than July 2020. Gas prices are up 40% since Biden took office, which kick-started an inflationary hit on every American because every single thing we buy, at some point, comes out the back of a gas-guzzling truck.

In addition to the tax increases mentioned above that we have been hearing about, Larry Kudlow, in a recent article, succinctly articulated the pending tax assault; “stock buyback tax, a corporate alternative minimum tax, tax on so-called high salaries, tax on CEO pay disparity, a tax on unrealized capital gains, a tax on carried interest, an end to the 20% small business deduction, a tax on estate planning, limits to active business loses, a tax on so called mega retirement accounts, new bank reporting requirements for all depositary inflows and outflows, a plastics excise tax, a carbon tax and a fossil fuel tax,

And with these taxes comes thousands of pages of new regulations and big-government control that will strangle businesses, small and large, taking the economy rapidly into a Carter/Obama/Biden-like stagflation.

Over and over and over we have heard our president emphatically point his finger at us and say, “Anyone…. making…. less….. than….. $400,000 …. will …NOT …… pay …..any …. more…. income…. tax. If he knows that it is a lie but keeps saying it, we are in trouble. Conversely, if he believes it is the truth and keeps saying it, we are in even deeper trouble. As the overall economy slows and inflation spreads across all goods and services, businesses will not support increased wages and the middle class is going to get hammered.

An added note about, “billionaires paying their fair share,” a familiar Biden/Bernie Sanders refrain. According to Forbes there are 724 U.S. billionaires with a collective net worth of about $4.4 trillion. The democrats have lined up $3–$6 trillion in new spending beyond the baseline budget of about $4 trillion. It is impossible to make the numbers work. Assume we just take everything the billionaires have, cash it in and send the check to the feds. It wouldn’t cover the current Biden spending binge and then how do we get the billionaires’ taxes next year? And don’t forget about Bernie Sander’s Medicare for all which is not yet on the Biden/Pelosi/Schumer to-do list.

THE DEBT BOMB: Even before this year’s Biden multi-trillion-dollar spending spree, the federal debt was forecast to reach at least $33 trillion by 2024 and $45 trillion by 2031. We have to service that debt which is currently about $400 billion annually with historically low interest rates. Should the 10-year Treasury rate move to a reasonable 5%, as it was in 2007, the annual interest payment would be about $1.4 trillion. That plus entitlements suck up all the projected revenue. What then do we do about discretionary spending to run the government? That is one reason why the Congressional Budget Office continues to call our national debt “unstainable.”

BIDEN’S “BUILD BACK BETTER”: A White House economic analysis last spring asserted that the U.S. economy can’t grow faster than 1.9% over the long term. The Wall Street Journal concluded that 1.9% growth will, without a doubt, create a disconnect between the rising cost of the Biden entitlement state and a reduced ability to finance it. Where is the “build” and where is the “better” in Biden’s sound-bite economic policy?

The eight-year anemic Obama/Biden economy was lit up by President Trump in 2017. What happened is not rocket science. When taxes were cut, we-the-people had more disposable income and we bought more goods and services which caused increased production. Increased production caused an increase in wages and less unemployment. Unemployment for women and minorities became the lowest in history. Numbers of families collecting some form of government welfare plummeted. Gross domestic product went steadily up. And, pay attention democrats, even with lower tax rates the federal revenue in 2019 was the highest in history. What is it about this formula that is so difficult to understand? Oh, I almost forgot about the Biden number one governing maxim, if it was a Trump success it must be bad and therefore must be reversed.

TRANSFORMING AMERICA: Today, not tomorrow, today Americans should be worried about stopping this Biden/Pelosi/Schumer steamroller before (as someone recently wrote), “we wake up to a government that dominates and controls our lives in a country we don’t recognize.”

WHAT ELSE? 1) I will not be surprised to see somewhere in the 10,000 pages of the reconciliation bill a statement that grants amnesty to 20-some million illegal migrants. Why not, the issue will not get debated or exposed to we-the-people before it, all of a sudden, is the law of the land and thereby solidifies the Latino democratic voting block for years to come. Amnesty has the potential to severely damage this nation. Precedent is a powerful force, especially in government. Once amnesty is declared and the precedent set, every border will, in short order, be overcome with masses of illegals from all around the world, hoping to get in line for Amnesty #2. Our schools, medical and welfare systems will be rapidly overwhelmed.

2) There may well be tens or hundreds of billions of dollars allocated to education. Why? Because our education system is pathetic and the only solution politicians can see is to throw top-down money at the problem with little to show for it.

3) Student debt forgiveness is another democrat pet give-away idea that may see the light of day.

4) The democrats will likely throw some bones to organized labor to give them greater access and leverage in the work-place.

CONCLUSIONS:

Wake up America, the democratic leadership is hell-bent on controlling every aspect of your life by dividing the nation into identity groups, pitting one group against another, creating a general governmental dependency and thereby perpetuating their control.

National debt does not concern Congress, even though the Congressional Budget Office has for years been telling all of us that the projected debt levels are “unsustainable”.

Even with trillions of dollars on the table, it is doubtful the democrats will acknowledge the herd of elephants in the room; 1) lawlessness, 2) an open border, 3) tons of Cartel illegal drugs and China-produced fentanyl flooding our country and killing record numbers of Americans, 4) accepting and transporting tens of thousands of Covid-positive illegal immigrants to towns and cities across America every day.

The Biden American Rescue Plan, March 2021 clearly exposed an element of America’s human nature; those millions of able-bodied workers would rather accept a federal check and do nothing than answer any one of hundreds of local ads for employment. What does that tell us about the potential productivity of a disincentivized U.S. welfare state?

Any administration that attempts to lump their four-year policy agenda into a single bill and pass it without due process, debate or sufficient public disclosure is irresponsible and disregards the will of the people it represents. It is a dangerous precedent.

Senator Joe Manchin, democrat, West Virginia, tells us, “The purpose of the proposed $3.5 trillion in new spending isn’t to solve some urgent problems, but to re-envision America’s social policies.” In this case I believe re-envision is a euphemism for transformation.

For the past few years, I have not believed it possible for Congress as a whole and Congressional leadership in particular to act any more irresponsibly. But I have underestimated them. This moment is an historic low in terms of accountability, integrity, political bias, self-service and lack of concern for the general well-being of all Americans.

A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS: UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA

On the 5th of September this proposal was published by Rip McIntosh to his tens of thousands of subscribers. Rip is a great patriot and publishes the thoughts of a number of writers several times per week. I strongly recommend you subscribe to his web site. This morning he sent me the following comments and has agreed to share them with you. He wrote, “I personally consider this proposal by General Covault of such importance, I am devoting this entire newsletter to its circulation. I urge you to read it carefully and do everything in your power to give it as broad exposure as possible. Short of a Divine Intervention, I can think of nothing that would more substantially improve life in our United States of America than implementation of Universal Service for America at the earliest possible moment.“

AUTHOR’S COMMENT: This is not an article; it is a proposal that has the potential to transform America in a very positive way. It is long and I appreciate that your time is valuable, but ask that you read it in its entirety. The subject is compulsory national service for all 18-year-old Americans. This proposal will go absolutely nowhere unless We the People create a movement and force the issue to be debated and decided upon in the Executive Branch and Congress.

2. BACKGROUND: Here are some thoughts on what we need to consider before launching into a discussion of compulsory national service, a program that has never existed in our nation.

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

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

A Senate panel’s newly approved defense budget from July, 2021 includes a provision that will require women to register with the Selective Service System at age 18.

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

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

Requiring women to register with the Selective Service System at age 18.
Increasing military outreach, particularly to those areas with a low-propensity to join the armed forces.
Expanding educational opportunities during military service and developing strategies to recruit and retain in high-demand occupations.
Expanding civic educational programs in schools.
Significantly increasing non-military service opportunities in order to create “an expectation of service” by 2031.

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

1) They completely failed to recognize the elephant in the room, that is, do we need compulsory national service for everyone 18-year-old?

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

d. CULTURE OF SERVICE: Over the years I have given culture considerable thought, written about it, lectured on it and guided large organizations through the process. Here are some of my conclusions:

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

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

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

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

3. ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT:

A concept of operations is a good place to begin the long-range strategic planning process. Its purpose is to tell the story by first defining the problem to be solved, providing a vision of the end-state, (i.e., what we believe can be accomplish), and finally, filling in some of the blanks by describing how the whole thing is going to work. When completed the concept of operations can become a public affairs tool or a sales pitch, if you will.

This document is not the long-range strategic plan. If and when the concept is accepted by, We the People, Congress and the Executive Branch, a strategic planning team will begin to work the hundreds of details into a phased strategic plan.

4. BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING with these two questions:

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

Here is a short list of youth-related issues that will continue to plague this nation far into the future unless bold steps are taken now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before you read on, let’s deal with the overarching question, WHY SHOULD WE HAVE UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA?

Given these five problem areas (Gangs, Drop-outs, Obesity, Culture, Race and Welfare), the better question is, are these problems in the process of being solved with/by other national programs? I believe the answer is an unequivocable NO. Universal Service for America, or as it may become known as, the U.S.A. Program, can be a transformational undertaking and is therefore worth the effort to make it happen. It can become a rite of passage for all Americans. Please read on.

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

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

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

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

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

7. OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS: For Universal Service for America to be successful it must encompass, as a minimum, the following:

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

Amend the enrollment age from 18 to 17. This will provide Universal Service for America staff with a valid database of potential participants a year in advance of their reporting for duty at age 18.
Currently the law says that, “Failure to register with the Selective Service is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment.”
The law should be amended to read: An American citizen must register with the Selective Service within 30 days after their 17^th birthday. Male immigrants residing in the United States who are 17 through 25 years of age must register within 30 days of arrival in the U.S. Those who have not done so by their 18^th birthday are subject to imprisonment for five years. If, after one year in prison, they register with the Selective Service and report to the next available Universal Service for America program, the remainder of the 5-year sentence will be forgiven.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continuing with the program’s OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS:

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

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

f. Everyone will be stationed at a location removed from their home of record and will not be stationed with others from their home community.

g. Men and women participants will not cohabitate.

h. The majority will be stationed in urban areas.

i. Every full-time attendee will be authorized vacation days over religious holidays and during July or August.

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

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

l. Everyone will participate in physical training five days per week.

m. Everyone will abide by the Universal Service for America Code of Conduct.

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

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

p. Mandatory unannounced drug testing will be the norm.

q. All will participate in leader training by being team leaders or higher as they move through the program.

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

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

8. PARTICIPATION NUMBERS for a 12-month, all-18-year-old program: Using 2020 data, it is possible to forecast the approximate number of participants if Universal Service for America could begin operations June 2023; 3.7 million 18-year-old high school graduates, plus 300,000 18-year-old non-graduates and some, yet to be determined, number of 18-year-old non-citizens living in the U.S.

9. A TYPICAL DAY IN UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA: The intent of the schedule is to address the problems articulated in paragraph 4, gangs, dropouts, illiteracy, obesity, culture, race relations and welfare. And most importantly, to build a culture of service to society. The days will be tailored to individual needs with the objective of transforming lives and thereby giving them a greater chance at a successful life.

a. Morning Schedule:

Physical training.
Gather in a classroom setting, in groups of about 25, with a volunteer instructor, and discuss elements of the Character Development curriculum; see paragraph 10.
For the remainder of the morning, based on arrangements with local schools, those who have not graduated from high school, could, attend virtual classes and gain credits towards receiving a high school diploma.
Through arrangements with local Community Colleges, those participants interested in some type of technical training could take morning classes.
Those seriously deficient in reading, writing and math skills could attend remedial morning classes.
Have an “open” period each morning for guest speakers, leadership training, lessons on U.S. history and civics; whatever subjects enhance the overall program.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12. UNIVERSAL SERVICE FOR AMERICA LEADERS IN THE FIELD: There is and always will be a perfect source of men and women to become qualified leaders and staff for the program. Annually the Defense Department retires thousands of men and women who have just finished 20-25 years of service, are looking for a second career and all have four things in common. 1) They are proven leaders. 2) They have years of experience teaching and training. 3) They understand standards and have spent two decades living up to them. 4) And perhaps most importantly, they have served in a totally integrated inter-racial environment with an overarching value base of accountability, respect and trust. What more could one ask for in a person to lead and mentor the young adults?

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

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

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

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

a. Phase 1, the fall of 2021: If this was a military operation this step would be called “shaping the Battlespace.” For this program to succeed we need a strong, robust, multi-faceted Public Relations Campaign to generally enlighten everyone and to convince the general population that this is worth the effort, worth the expense and will make our nation better and stronger than it can otherwise become. “Mandatory participation” is potentially a tough sell.

The intent is to get some traction with the White House, Congress, Governors, local officials, the general public and media. A good start would be if enough people who agree with this Concept of Operations would send it on to every state and federal politician in the country. Additionally, seek to make compulsory service a frequently debated issue on the opinion pages in newspapers across the country.

Also in phase 1, find a pro bono CEO for this program. The first order of business will be to pull together a pro bono Board of Directors, composed of movers-and-shakers to find financing for a national Public Relations Campaign.

b. Phase 2, early 2022: The CEO and his/her Board of Directors should draft the proposed legislation and push for Universal Service for America Non-Governmental Organization, NGO, funding to be included in the President’s budget when it is sent to Congress, Phase 3, by the first Monday in February, 2022. The first-year funding will be modest in that it may be prudent to begin the programs with a pilot program.

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

c. Phase 3 also in the spring of 2022: The CEO will give the states a heads-up that, if passed by Congress, the law will require the states’ DMV facilities to be prepared to coordinate with the Selective Services System and register prospective attendees. All Americans who will reach their 18th birthday on or before 1 June, 2023 must register for the Universal Service for America and may volunteer to attend the pilot program beginning in the summer of 2023.

d. Phase 4 will begin in 2022: The President signs the bill which will provide pilot-program funding for Universal Service for America as a Non-Governmental Organization. Hopefully that should happen by 1 October 2022 when the government’s fiscal year begins.

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

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

e. Phase 5 will begin in June of 2023: Bringing 18-year-old volunteers into the program in each state.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20. THE CEO: I have contacted one of America’s most important, influential and respected voices on cultural, political, and educational issues. He has held numerous positions of great importance to America to include and Executive Branch department head for a previous president. He is a frequent guest on national news programs speaking on current critical issues and is a voice for traditionally American values. I am in hopes that he will consider taking on the position of CEO, Universal Service for America.

21. CONCLUSIONS:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

f. Amtrak is a good example of a tax-payer funded government -run expense. Fifty-one years ago, President Nixon signed the Rail Passenger Service Act creating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, later known as Amtrak, to take over intercity passenger rail obligations. Amtrak has lost money every year requiring a federal subsidy. In 2019 it was $1.9 billion.

The Northeast corridor is the crown jewel of Amtrak. Interestingly, 92% of its riders have a college degree and an average income of $170,000 a year. Yet, taxpayers subsidize $60 of each Amtrak ticket on that line. As if that is not enough, the government Covid relief packages in 2020 provided $2 billion dollars to Amtrak. Additionally, the infrastructure bill passed by the Senate in August, 2021 contains $66 billion for intercity rail. That, Mr. and Mrs. taxpayer, is a government “expense.”

Universal Service for America, on the other hand, should not be categorized as a government expense; it is an investment in the future of our great nation. Yes, it will be expensive but the pay-back is incalculable. Go back and review the problems articulated in Paragraph 4, associated with young Americans today and then ask yourself if those problems could be even partially eliminated, would it be worth the investment?

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

22. A PARTING THOUGHT: While writing this Concept of Operations, some of my mentors and confidants suggested looking at the Israeli program of mandatory military service for all men and women . Four things were brought to my attention:

Mandatory military service has become a “rite of passage” for all Israeli citizens. the U.S.A. Program can become that or all Americans.

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

Women have equal status and equal responsibilities. the U.S.A. Program can promote and advance that in our nation.

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

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

23. KEYS TO SUCCESS: A criical step in every long -range strategic planning effort is to STOP, about now when the oveerall concept of Operations has been thought through and at least touched on most of teh necessary questions (who-what-when-where-why-and-how?) and then ask, what are the keys to success? Or stated another way, what can cause this to fail? the keys to success for Universal Service for America are:

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

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

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

d. Everything in the program must contribute to and point toward creating a lasting culture of ACCOUNTABILITY, TRUST AND RESPECT.

24. BOTTOM LINE:

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

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

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

25. WHAT CAN YOU DO? The short answer is get involved; every one of you. Use this Concept of Operations as an information source and talk up the subject of compulsory service with friends and neighbors. Summarize this concept and send it to the editorial page of your local newspaper. By whatever means you received this copy, forward it to your email list.

My thanks go out to every one of you for reading this.

Very Respectfully,

Marvin Covault

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen U.S. Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com

FIXING AMERICA’S PATHETIC EDUCATION SYSTEM

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

INTENT: My intent here is to make two points. One, what is the magnitude of the problem and secondly how do we fix it?

HOW BIG IS THE PROBLEM? Huge. Education is perhaps this nation’s greatest disgrace. Yet every four years we go through the same song-and-dance. Candidates promise to spend more billions of dollars, resulting in more top-down regulation which then requires a bigger inefficient and ineffective Department of Education bureaucracy. This is a decades-old formula for failure as we spend more dollars per student and watch our world rating in education continue to decline.

WHERE ARE WE TODAY? Education has been headline-news over the past 18 months. The pandemic shut down schools and 60 million kids and 180 million adults with children under age 18 had to learn, or not, to endure remote classrooms. More recently the national debate has been about including critical race theory as a foundational piece of every school’s curriculum and about masks and vaccinations. But what we do not talk about is the elephant in the room, embarrassing, ridiculous education results.

THE NATION’S REPORT CARD: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only assessment that measures what U.S. students know and can do in various subjects across the nation, states, and in some urban districts. Also known as The Nation’s Report Card, NAEP has provided important information about how students are performing academically since 1969. They grade mathematics, reading, science, writing, technology, arts, civics, geography, economics, and U.S. history for grades 4^th and 8^th every 2 years and 12^th grade every 4 years.

PRE-COVID NAEP REPORT CARD: In 2019 NAEP tested 150,600 grade 4 students, 143,100 grade 8, and 26,700 grade 12 students and reported: Here is a summary pulled from a large comprehensive report:

Reading: The assessment measures reading comprehension by asking students to read selected grade-appropriate materials and answer questions based on what they have read.

Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12

NOT proficient: 59% 66% 76%

Mathematics: The assessment measures both mathematics knowledge and the students’ ability to apply their knowledge in problem-solving situations.

Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12

NOT proficient: 65% 66% 63%

Other subjects were even worse. For high school seniors 88% NOT proficient in history, 77% NOT proficient in writing ability and 78% NOT proficient in science.

NAEP defines “proficiency” as follows: NAEP student achievement levels are performance standards that describe what students should know and be able to do. Results are reported at three achievement levels, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. What we-the-people want and deserve from our schools are high school graduates who are “proficient”, that is they are ready to go out into the world with the skills to put together a successful and prosperous life. The above percentages represent the number that cannot score up to the “proficient” level. Generally speaking, two thirds of our high school graduates are not adequately prepared to do that. And that says nothing about the 7,000 students who drop out every school day.

More snapshots that illustrate the problems in government-run public schools: Providence, RI: Only 5% of eighth graders are proficient in math. Newark, NJ: 21% proficiency in math. North Carolina: 44 % of North Carolina fourth-graders are not proficient in reading. Wisconsin: Black American eighth graders perform only slightly better than white fourth graders in reading and math. And so it goes across the country. A recent survey found that 20% of American adults cannot name even one of the three branches of government.

GOVERNMENT-RUN vs CHARTER: One cannot adequately analyze education results without getting inside the government-run public schools vs charter schools discussion. Let’s begin by understanding what a charter school is.

Facts shared by nearly all the states: Charter schools are authorized by the State Board of Education. Charter schools are tuition-free schools of choice that are operated mostly by independent non-profit boards of directors.

The two major teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) consistently spread false information against charter schools.

Misinformation # 1: “Charter schools are unaccountable, private schools that take money away from district schools.” Truth: Charter schools are 100% accountable to state authorities. Charter school students are typically funded at $0.73/dollar compared to district school students.

Misinformation # 2: “Charter schools don’t serve a diverse population of students; they get to hand pick their students to populate their schools.” The truth is, if a child is eligible to attend a public government school, parents may apply to any charter school. If a charter school receives more applications than its capacity, a lottery is conducted. Discrimination based on race, national origin, or religion is prohibited.

Misinformation # 3: “Charter schools are not academically superior to government-run public schools.” Truth: In New York City, for example, in a number of minority communities, traditional public school and charter school classes are co-located in a common building. In one co-mingled building in 28 different classes less than 10% of the government-run public school students tested to a proficient level while 81-100% of charter students were proficient.

Why do charter school students perform better? Two reasons: 1) Government-run public schools are top-down highly regulated vs charters with their own organization, planning, and programs allowing them the freedom to use innovative school models and customized approaches to curriculum, staffing , budgeting and teaching.

2) Government-run public schools are highly unionized while charters are not. With teacher union support, on average it takes about two years of a Principal’s effort to fire a teacher for poor performance. Unsatisfactory teachers are not being held accountable. By contrast, if charter students do not measure up to standards, the school is subject to being shut down by state law. Is accountability important in education? Yes, it is the ultimate arbiter.

CONCLUSION, TEACHERS’ UNIONS ARE NOT A PART OF THE SOLUTION, THEY ARE A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM. Two facts lead to this conclusion:

One, generally, across the nation, charter school students score higher on achievement tests than students in government-run public schools.

Two, this is a summary of what the union leaders are telling we-the-people about charter schools: Charter schools are privately-operated, deregulated, segregated, poorly-supervised, de-unionized scandal-ridden contract schools that drain much-needed funds from demonized public schools. Those statements are all lies.

To illustrate how out-of-control the teachers unions can get, when California was considering sending teachers back in to the classroom, the Los Angeles teachers’ union made the following demands: defund police, a moratorium on new charter schools, new wealth taxes on California millionaires and billionaires and Medicare-for-all at the federal level. Three questions come to mind: 1) How did they get so far out of their lane? 2) Why are they the final decision maker on when teachers return to the classroom? 3) How did they get that much power and influence?

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND EDUCATION: Biden on education during the 2020 campaign: “There are some charter schools that work.” Wow, what a resounding endorsement! And, “I will stop all federal funding for for-profit charter schools.” Only about 16 percent of charter schools across the country are operated by for-profit entities.

The Democrat party traditionally supports everything the teachers’ unions are saying and doing which is not necessarily good for education. But it is good for campaigning; in 2016 the two largest teachers’ unions contributed $41 million dollars to candidates with 94% going to Democrats.

The Democrat Governor and legislature in Oregon, July 2021, found a solution to the dismal reporting that the state’s high school graduates had failed to master essential skills. The governor signed into law a suspension of the state requirements that students demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing and math. That simple piece of legislation just told the teachers, Principals, Superintendents and school boards that they will not be held accountable for passing out high school diplomas to illiterate graduates.

FIXING EDUCATION begins with an understanding that education without standards is a failed system; education without accountability is a failed system. We have a failed system.

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. What to do? We have to change the way we solve education problems with more decentralized decision making and execution.

Learn from charter schools. As pointed out earlier, charters are turning out better educated graduates because they are allowed to operate with their own organization, planning, and programs allowing them the freedom to use innovative school models and customized approaches to curriculum, staffing, budgeting and teaching. Big, centralized government bureaucracies stifle all of that.

We need to begin education reform by doing away with the federal Department of Education. Turn it into a small agency principally dedicated to handling federal grants to education. This will in turn take education out of national politics and hopefully make it less partisan.

Decentralize education by putting the responsibility for quality education squarely on the states where it can be more directly scrutinized by we-the-people.

AN ORGANIZATION WITHOUT STANDARDS IS A FAILED ORGANIZATION: Applying standards to education 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 must 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 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.

HOW DO WE ESTABLISH THE 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, led by the Governor. The governor is accountable for standards.

The governor will set up a summer work session by inviting selected teachers and Principals 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 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.

A similar group of 1^st grade teachers, who sat in on the kindergarten session but did not participate, now have a clear understanding of the kindergarten end-state which clearly defines their start point for 1^st grade standards. They then set about to establish end of 1^st grade standards.

And so it would go on day after day during a summer-long session to define standards for every grade and every course K-12.

AN ORGANIZATION WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY IS A FAILED ORGANIZATION. If the accountable Governor has established viable, understandable standards for all subjects and all grades, accountability immediately moves down to the local level.

The local Board of Education and the Superintendent are accountable to the local public, we-the-people, for institutionalizing the standards. That begins with their school Principals’ job description, mission statement, goals, focus etc. however they want to phrase it. The Principal will be accountable for quality instruction to standard of every subject in every classroom every day; period. It is the Principal’s number one priority every day and whatever is second priority should rarely see the light of day; period.

How does the principal’s focus get translated into the classroom? It begins with good old fashioned lesson plans. Every teacher is accountable for preparing lesson plans on a week-by-week basis that lead directly to the standard (for example) established for end of first semester 4^th grade math.

The Principal’s accountability begins at the beginning of the year when he/she goes over every lesson plan with each teacher to insure there is a clear path to the required end-state; that is, what the student must know and understand at the end of each semester.

The Principle should have all the lesson plans in a 3-ring binder or on an iPad. Every day he/she will take the lesson plans and visit classrooms. If the teacher is behind schedule, if the instruction is sub-par, if the students are obviously not “getting it” there must then be a one-on-one Principal/teacher “discussion” at the end of that day. Fix it. Accountability.

Accountability on the part of the Principal should include creating conditions for success. That is, an open-door/open discussion atmosphere, an environment in which initiative and innovation are encouraged and best practices sharing is the norm and reenforced with a culture of trust and respect.

Teacher accountability is to teach/test, teach/test so as to know at all times if the kids “get it” and if they do not, re-teach, tutor, whatever it takes to not let a student get behind. Getting behind in 4^th grade leads to being further behind in 5^th grade etc. until they eventually become one of the 7,000-per-day dropouts.

SEPARATING THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF: Teachers and leaders.

Teachers: Just as in any other organization, schools have key individuals (in this case teachers) who can be categorized as great, good, mediocre or poor performers. How can you tell? There is a good chance that poor performing students have a mediocre or poor teacher. These are the teachers who will say in a huff, “Well, I know how to present the material but I can’t make them learn;” blaming their failures on someone else. In contrast is the teacher with students who are doing well and that teacher not only knows how to present the subject matter but also knows how to make the students WANT to learn.

Leaders: In all large organizations, industry, government, military and in this case education, there are elements (branches, divisions, schools) that are drowning in mediocracy. One thing that may be common in all of these is what I call consensus-to-fail. It is an unwritten, unstated but also alive and functioning operational understanding wherein the leader is “saying” without actually saying it out loud, “I will not hold you responsible for being mediocre subordinates if you will not hold me responsible for being a mediocre leader. When one walks into an organization like that there is a feeling, a sense that initiative, innovation, high standards are not the order of the day and they are completely satisfied with mediocracy.

There are some schools that are consistently poor performing organizations. If it is a charter school their charter will be pulled. If it is a government-run public school the usual solution is to throw more money at the problem. Additionally, one reason poor performing schools have a tendency to remain substandard is that when a great or good teacher is hired and they get a sense of the consensus-to-fail culture, they want no part of it and they move on.

With this emphasis on transforming education at the point of execution there is going to be demand for good-to-great leadership at the local level. The Superintendent is the first level where quality instruction becomes that position’s number one priority. On a daily basis the Superintendent must lead, mentor and observe the first-line leaders the school Principals. Unrelenting focus on quality instruction.

Many school districts will be faced with the problem of not having enough experienced leaders at the Superintendent/Principal level. Many individuals in those positions were placed there based on the fact that they were excellent teachers but may in fact have never had a day of leadership training. There is always an easy fix at the local level and it is free. Every community has its share of successful civilian and/or military leaders either still employed or retired. The board of education could easily set up mandatory Saturday morning leader development seminars for the Superintendent and all of the school Principles. Solicit the local leaders to participate pro bono in the seminars.

This is not rocket science; this is leadership and accountability and unrelenting focus at the point of execution. Some teachers will probably complain to their union representative. Good, that’s when the Superintendent and/or the local Board of Education steps in and explains to the union how the soup is made in their school district.

Sometimes large and seemingly insurmountable problems have a simple, common-sense solution. I believe that education in America can be put back on track. But it is going to take some draconian action by the President and Congress. Do away with the Department of Education. Cut out all the federal bureaucratic regulations and reporting requirements. Get politics out of education, just let it work on its own at the local level. We-the-people cannot rely on some nameless faceless bureaucrat in Washington to solve our local education problems. But if the accountable local Board of Education members get off track, we can for sure vote them out of office. The local Superintendent and school Principals are people we know and can talk to.

RECAP: EDUCATION NEEDS A NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION WHICH WILL ENTAIL, AS A MINIMUM DOING THE FOLLOWING:

Do away with the Dept of Education and it rules, regulations, reporting requirements and bureaucrats.
Expand school choice with more charter schools.
Decentralize education to the states to establish standards.
Decentralize education to the school districts for accountability.
Find a way to curb the power, control and authority of the teachers’ unions.

Achievable standards and clearly articulated accountability is a formula for dramatically raising students’ “proficiency” in all subjects across America. It does not begin in Washington, it begins with state-wide standards and is accomplished at the point of execution, inside the school house one day at a time.

WHO CAN WE BELIEVE?

February 29, 2020, US and Taliban sign an agreement that sets the terms for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.

April 14, 2021, President Biden announced plans to pull all US Military forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.

July 8, Biden says military withdrawal from Afghanistan will conclude August 31^st.

Point: None of what is currently taking place in Afghanistan was a surprise to the Biden Administration. Here is some of the dialogue that has taken place over the past six weeks:

Biden: “That is not true” he said when asked about the claim that US intelligence has concluded that the Afghan government would likely collapse.

Biden: “It was not inevitable that the Taliban will take over Afghanistan.”

When Biden was asked whether there was any comparison between his withdrawal from Afghanistan and the humiliating retreat from Vietnam, his response was: “None whatsoever. Zero.” Note: That is perhaps the most accurate statement he has made. This withdrawal is Vietnam plus Iran 1979 plus Benghazi to the tenth power.

Biden: “The pace with which the Taliban have gained ground in recent weeks has only solidified the merits of my decisions.” Would that be the “merits” of withdrawing the military before the civilians? At a later date, “I don’t think it (the withdrawal) was a failure.” Then why do we have tens of thousands of American citizens unaccounted for?

Biden and General Milley, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the Afghan National Army. Biden 14 July: “I trust the capacity of the 300,000-man Afghan military.” Milley 21 July: “Afghan forces have the capacity to fight and defend their country.”

Biden: “We are assured that the Taliban will be cooperating in the effort to get American citizens out of the country over the next few weeks.” Biden: “There were no reports of people being stopped from reaching the airport by the Taliban.” Pentagon reveals Taliban beating Americans enroute to airport. Note: are we to believe that our president thinks the Taliban are trustworthy?

General Milley: “I have previously said in sworn testimony before Congress that the intelligence clearly indicated multiple scenarios were possible. One of those was an outright Taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of the Afghan security forces and the government.” Note: This would lead one to believe the Defense Department had built a plan for that contingency. However, at General Milley’s press conference after the Taliban complete takeover: “There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.” Oh yes there was, in July, 23 State Department staff at the Kabul embassy informed Secretary of State Blinken of exactly that…. Kabul will fall quickly to the Taliban.

Biden, 16 August address to the nation: “We are moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every contingency including the rapid collapse we’re seeing now.” Note: Plans in place for every contingency? I don’t think so; what about the evacuation of tens of thousands of Americans now under the complete control of Taliban fighters?

Biden, 16 August address to the nation: “Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland.” Question: The safety of tens of thousands of American citizens controlled by the Taliban is not a vital national interest right now?

Biden and Sec Def Austin: Biden 16 August, “Over the coming days, we intend to transport out thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in Afghanistan.” Sec Def Austin 18 August (When asked whether the U.S. has the capability to do that) “We do not have the capability to go out and gather large amounts of people.” What the Sec Def or Chairman should have said is, we have the greatest capability in the world to ensure safe passage for all Americans in Afghanistan to a departure airfield. We are awaiting approval from the president to execute. And both should have been prepared to resign over the issue.

Biden 16 August: “As we carry out this departure, we have made it clear to the Taliban: If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the US presence will be swift and the response will be swift and forceful.” We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary.”

Sec Def Austin 18 August: “The US has roughly 4,500 troops on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport. But those forces will not be sent beyond the airfield perimeter to quell the chaos or help people pass Taliban checkpoints.” Question, which one is telling us the truth?

How many times have we heard the president tell us, “We are in discussions with the Taliban”? Is Biden so naïve that he actually believes the Taliban command and control is sufficient for their leaders to be communicating rules of engagement to the mostly-illiterate thugs who are manning the checkpoints throughout the country?

Biden apparently did not talk with key NATO allies before the Taliban took complete control of Afghanistan. While the president told us,” I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world,” the world was sounding off loud and clear. For example, German soon-to-be Chancellor Armin Laschet said, “This is the greatest debacle that NATO has seen since its foundation, and it is an epochal change that we are facing.” Also the U.K. has roundly condemned Joe Biden’s poor and unilateral decision-making, even going so far as both parties in British Parliament holding Biden “in contempt.”

The president’s mis-statement about our allies and NATO begs the questions. a) Is he just making this up as he goes along? Or b) is he deliberately lying to us believing we are too dumb to understand the truth? Or c) Biden simply doesn’t pay enough attention to the world around him to see it? Or d) His handlers are sabotaging him with false information on his teleprompter? Whichever answer is correct it is disappointing, alarming and the American people deserve better. What is equally alarming is some of the US media keeps pretending the emperor is not naked.

How many Americans must be evacuated from Afghanistan? State and Defense Department spokespersons, Price and Kirby: “I don’t know.” One might then ask, what size force do we need to safely evacuate I-don’t-know-thousand people?

How incredible is this? Is this 1821 or 2021? From personal experience with the State Department, this I-don’t-know response does not surprise me. But I do know the Defense Department does know how to plan for crisis-related evacuations, or at least did. It was 1978, the Cold War was in full swing and I was commanding a nuclear-capable artillery battalion as part of the US 3^rd Infantry Division near the Czechoslovakia border, where we were staring down four Soviet tank divisions. Under that scenario, how were we going to evacuate tens of thousands of military dependents if necessary? It’s not rocket science. Part of the overall plan was that my wife had a car, she could evacuate our two small daughters, she knew the route to take to her rally location which happened to be the Frankfurt airport. My family was briefed on our evac responsibilities the day we arrived in country and were kept current for three years.

No one, not one single person during the past ten days of this crisis has ever mentioned the civilians’ evac plan. Obviously, there isn’t one. Nice going State Department.

Comment on Biden’s address to the nation Sunday the 22^nd. Nice numbers about how many individuals have been flown out of Kabul, but, Mr. President, how many are still out there unaccounted for and literally under the gun of Taliban radical jihadists? And how are they going to get to the Kabul airport? That is what we-the-people tuned in to hear, not about what a great job the president believes he is doing.

Biden 22 August: “Evacuation will be hard and painful.” Note: Of course it will be painful but it didn’t have to be. Without a plan, everything is chaos.

Sunday, 22 August address to the nation the president told us everything is going well and I’m doing a great job. Note: Americans have always been great at accomplishing the nearly impossible in times of crisis, especially the military because every day they train to innovate and persevere at the point of execution.

CONCLUSIONS:

No doubt the next generation of terrorists will be superbly armed with the 600,000 small arms we could have/should have evacuated under a pre-planned deliberate process.

Administration-wide incompetence. Don’t blame the soldiers, don’t blame their junior leaders, don’t blame the Division Commanders; this is all about the Washington arrogance, stupidity and centralized control.

The US has, in just a few days’ time, become the laughing stock of the world and every time our Commander in Chief opens his mouth or reaches for another 3×5 cad, it gets worse.

The White House “handlers” have figured out that the president occasionally needs to take a few, but not many, questions from the media. It is not lost on America and the rest of the world that everything is pre-scripted on cards; who to call on, what their question will be and what the president should say. Its pathetic, its embarrassing and it should not be happening. We need to hear our Commander in Chief speak from the heart, demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge and understanding of the problem. But no, everything we hear is from the pen of a White House handler. Who is in charge?

Some thoughts about planning; I wrote a book about it. After putting together an overall concept of what an operation will be about (a first draft dealing with the questions, who, what, when, where, why and how) there needs to be a moment when the boss gathers his planners together and asks the question, what are the keys to success? Or, stated another way, what can cause this to fail? It is not a long list, maybe two or three inviolable issues. In this circumstance a hand would have gone up and a bright guy or gal would have said; the last person on the last aircraft out of Afghanistan must be departing from Bagram Air Base. We own it, we have secured it since we got there, it has two long runways and we can safely handle thousands of evacuees. Everyone agreed.

Second hand goes up; every US civilian in country needs to have a preplanned evac plan that includes, means of transport, route and destination. Then we preplan to secure those routes. The boss says; absolutely, coordinate with the State Department and make it happen.

And so it goes; it is not rocket science, but it is the one commodity seemingly missing in Washington today, common sense.

A second comment on planning. The military lives by this thought, “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” The military mindset is that no plan is perfect and we need to think, way ahead of time, the answers to the questions, “what if….?” It is called contingency planning. Contingency planning is a parallel process that takes place before we execute.

Some example what-ifs: Since the president directed the withdrawal to commence during the Taliban fighting season, we would ask, what if they roll up control of the country faster than expected? What if the Taliban make a move to control all the major routes of egress? What if we have to prematurely evac the US embassy and lose their in-country knowledge and support? What if the Afghanistan National Army is unable or unwilling to stand against the Taliban offensive? What if the Afghan government folds up early?

Of course, many of you are saying right now, well that’s easy Monday-morning-quarterbacking. Reality is that our military leaders are trained to think worse-case-scenario and put it into a contingency plan because their lives may depend on it. With a proper planning process, they would have thought of these obvious what-ifs and probably a lot more.

There is zero indication that any of our leaders in Washington did anything like this. Instead, what we are getting is finger pointing at the intel community, and statement like, “no one expected the country to fall in 11 days.”

Was there sufficient time to do proper planning? Of course, there was a ridiculous amount of time available. Planning should have begun 18 months ago on 29 February, 2020, when the US and Taliban signed an agreement that set the terms for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021. Then, on 14 April, 2021 when President Biden announced plans to pull all US Military forces from Afghanistan by 9/11, 2021, all the fine-tuning and rehearsals should have begun. Words that come to mind: Dereliction of duty. High crimes and misdemeanors. Relief for cause.

The United States in two short weeks just forfeited its global leadership role and the consequences will, in all probability, be catastrophic. We could experience global open season on cyberattacks against the US; oil embargo; emboldened Putin moves on the Ukraine, Belarus, the Middle East; Russia supports Iranian hegemony in the Middle East; Russia no longer fears NATO retaliation; China invades Taiwan; China controls shipping in the South China Sea; Russia and China collusion to insure the US is cut out of initiatives in the Artic; Afghanistan terrorism, supported by Iran, regains pre-9/11 terrorist training/planning; terrorist flooding into the US across the southern border. For all practical purposes NATO becomes a paper tiger; North Korea ramps up missile testing; Iran fields a nuclear weapon; etc. etc. etc.

Why could some or all of this become a reality? Plain and simple failure by the US to lead. We have been disgraced, humiliated and placed in mortal danger by this leaderless administration. Our friends no longer respect us and our enemies no longer fear retaliation.