Let Your Will Be Done: Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

It was quickly made abundantly clear that major stock traders were most definitely unwilling to wait and see.  For the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 10% of its value within an hour of the opening bell ringing the next Monday morning, along with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ composites following suit by losing 12% and 7% of their total values, respectively.

Zeke had purposely chosen to make his big announcement on a Friday evening in the hope of cooler heads prevailing after being given a couple of days to think before the opening of the next trading session, but it took the stock exchanges suspending trading to stop the slide.  Zeke took some comfort in many commodity prices posting sharp gains, but he knew that this did little to mitigate the overall damage that had been done to the nation’s economy.

On the other side of the economic/political fence, Zeke’s opponents were dancing jigs.  For they believed they had enough personal resources to survive another great depression relatively unscathed while not believing that Zeke’s candidacy could survive such a catastrophic event.

Like the calm before a great storm, the stock market averages did not move much in either direction for two weeks after the initial plunge.  When the first polling numbers showed Zeke’s candidacy dead on arrival in all but a few areas of the country, stock prices across the board started to make nice rallies.

Nonetheless, the threat of Zeke being able to lead the federal government toward going into business against publicly-traded companies still weighed heavily on the minds of major traders.  Subsequently, when it started looking like Zeke might actually have a chance of being elected president, they started greatly reducing their holdings in companies that might suffer the most under an Erickson administration, which triggered sell-offs of many other stocks.

If it was not for so many pension funds being heavily invested in stocks, Zeke would have looked on the sell-offs as being a good thing in the long run.  For unconscionable speculators had driven stock prices to untenable heights, and at least a 35% reduction in overall stock market values was needed to place the nation’s economy on much more solid ground to sustain true growth of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and prosperity for all of its citizens—not just the wealthiest 1% or so.

Of course, thousands of jobs would be surely eliminated as stronger companies swallowed up weaker ones as stock prices continued their downward spiral, which would add even more to the darkness before the dawning of another golden economic age for the United States of America.  Oh, and with so much of what happens here being strongly felt around the globe, the possibility of a repeat of the great global economic depression after the stock market crash of 1929 loomed large on the horizon.

Zeke saw a simple solution to both problems.  For the federal government could retroactively insure actual contributions to pension funds in the same way as bank deposits were being insured, and the federal government could also maintain the incomes of workers caught in the crossfires until another job could be obtained.

So, Zeke asked the ranking member of the Arkansas congressional delegation to sponsor bills and gather support for the passage of those measures.  All of the members of Arkansas delegation eagerly agreed to do all they could to help, but staunch fiscal conservatives from other states holding high positions of power in both the United States House of Representatives and Senate made sure of the measures dying a quick death in preliminary committee hearings.

Zeke then played a hole card.  For with Arkansas sitting on more than $25 billion in cash reserves even after dramatically cutting many tax rates, the state had more than enough to fund the measures for at least a year.

It was most definitely a very decisive presidential move, and Zeke had more cards up his sleeve.  For the chairman of the National Reserve System Board of Governors was a supporter of what Zeke wanted to accomplish on a national scale, and he worked closely with Zeke to assure his counterparts in other countries that they had nothing to worry about, which kept the value of the dollar stable against other currencies.

The voters noticed what Zeke was doing, and when the November election rolled around, they elected him as the next president by a very comfortable margin.  Moreover, enough of his supporters were elected representatives and senators to ensure Zeke of having an easier time of it at the beginning of his first term in Washington than he had in Little Rock.

Zeke could not have scripted a better day for his inauguration.  For when it came time for him to place his hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution, the ambient outside temperature was a balmy 70^oF for January in Washington, DC.  The sun was shining brightly, and there was not a cloud to be seen in the sky for miles.  With the ceremony being held outside at the top of the west front steps to the Capitol Building, an enormous crowd was able to be in attendance, and they waited in breathless anticipation of what Zeke was going to say in his inaugural address.

As if all of that was not enough to secure an academy award, the piercing cry of a lone bald eagle was heard coming from high overhead.  After circling the Capitol Building a couple of times, the eagle landed on top of the flag pole on top of the west portico and turned to face the crowd.  The crowd gasped as one, and Zeke began to speak.

“It is most appropriate for a representative of the American spirit to be in attendance.  For at the heart of the American spirit is freedom, and this is what I want to talk about.  Those who know me well understand that I do not like to see people being forced to do what they do not want to.  This is at the heart of all I have wanted to accomplish while in office.  Some think that I want to institute a socialist system in the place of capitalism, but they are mistaken.  For instead of forcing privately-owned businesses to get with some program for the greater good of society, I would much rather see those businesses continue as they want to be and have the government itself provide citizens with what they could at much more reasonable prices. Instead of forcing the rich and powerful to pay for the welfare of the poor and needy, I would much rather help the poor and needy fend for themselves as much as possible.  This is what was started in Arkansas, and this is what I want to see continued for the benefit of the entire country.  No, it will not happen overnight, but with a little patience and a lot of understanding of what we are trying to accomplish here, America can start truly shining from sea to shining sea again.  We?  President Abraham Lincoln spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  Nothing of any good and lasting value can be accomplished without your help.”

It was an address that even Lincoln would have been most impressed with.  For it took less than five minutes to deliver, and it contained so very, very much.

Oh, and it was obviously what a very great many wanted to hear.  For calls with words of encouragement and suggestions on what could be done to improve things started flooding in from every state and territory in the Union, as well as from several countries across the globe.

Those calls were being taken by a fairly good-sized army of GSRs (Government Service Representatives—not gun-shot residues) mostly in their own homes, with the transcripts being forwarded on to the appropriate departments via the internet.  For Zeke absolutely hated having to fight through menu-based automated telephone answering systems before being able to talk to a real person.

On the way back to the White House from his inauguration ceremony, Zeke told Jenny that he was sorely tempted to add to his request for help from the general public at the end of his address, “Call now. Operators, actually alive and breathing, are standing by!”  Jenny laughed, but she told him that she was glad he had resisted.

No, not all of the calls were of a positive nature.  Ironically, one of those more negative calls was from a high-level executive at a health insurance company accusing Zeke of being a closeted communist, which was taken by a former customer service supervisor at that very same company, who had lost her job when the company merged with another health insurance company during the freefall of stock market prices the summer before.

The GSR handled the call in a very polite and professional manner by asking the executive if he would like a call back from the White House addressing his concerns.  Then she asked him if he knew who was now occupying her former office.  He ended the call without making any attempt to answer either of her questions.

The telephone call switching system that allowed many GSRs to work from their homes was quite ingenious.  For it made it possible for a call to a single 800 telephone number to be answered by a real person within three rings by going through several computerized switching substations at the speed of light until it reached the phone of a GSR not already on the line with someone else.

There were 100,000 GSRs standing by to take calls on Inauguration Day, and the switching system worked flawlessly.  Zeke figured that not nearly as many would be needed later on, but with all of the planned changes to this and that, he conceded that even more might be needed before all of the dust settled.  Besides, there were over 900,000 other walking wounded from the great stock market price massacre who would much rather be doing something productive than just receiving a government check.

Within a week, all of the old menu-based automated telephone answering systems being used by the federal government had been replaced by the new GSR system, and in the same time frame, all of the old virtually impossible to navigate federal government websites were replaced by ones very easy to use.  All of this was to the delight of everyone but the major telecom companies, who had designed the old system to ensure great profitability for themselves.

Yes, making high-speed internet access as readily available as electricity throughout the country was one of the first major programs Zeke sought to implement, but instead of making it a strictly federal system, he proposed working with each state and territory so that they could have their own Arkansas-like systems.  Needless to say, all of them signed-on immediately after being informed of the plan, with the only fuss being over who would receive the new service first.

It turned out to be that there was no need to jostle for position.  For it is amazing just how much can be accomplished in an extreme hurry when there is the political will to find a way, and in less than a year, all of the state and territorial digital media distribution systems were up and making their citizens very happy.

Zeke would often shake his head in bewilderment over so many refusing to participate in his programs when it was obviously in their best interest over the long run.  After all, just how many of even the greatest of widgets can be sold when they are priced way too high for most to afford simply on account of greed dictating profit margins?

Some were willing to participate to a certain extent, and as part of a compromise with the major telecom companies, they received $5 a month per customer now taking advantage of free, on a limited basis, telephone service over the government internet systems in exchange for keeping their hard-lines in place as a backup for the new systems.  Another part of the compromise was that the federal government would pay for the maintenance of their outside lines.

Speaking of outside lines, one of Zeke’s major projects that Congress had already approved funding for was the construction of huge utility tunnels for such things as fiber-optic cables, high-voltage electric lines and plenty of room for other stuff to run through.  After his plan had been presented, most in Congress agreed that this should have been done years ago.  For the overall cost to the nation’s economy each year from major storms taking down just outside electric lines made the tunnels most cost-effective—not to mention offering more peace of mind to potential voters.  Yes, earthquakes were still a threat to anything underground, but with technological advances giving the tunnels and what would be running through them a fairly great amount of flexibility, the threat from earthquakes was greatly minimized.

Of course, the biggest difference between now and back in Arkansas was that the federal government already had a construction company at its disposal in the form of the Army Corps of Engineers, and it was well able to construct the tunnels at a greatly reduced cost to the taxpayers.  A good example of this was that plans had been drawn up to construct a utility tunnel between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland thirty years before, but the $10.7 billion estimated cost was too much for the federal and state authorities to go along with.  Whereas, a much larger tunnel between the two cities was now going to be built for less than a third of the previous estimate.  No, none of the bids made by outside contractors came even close.

There was another major matter that contributed to the utility tunnels being constructed.  For plans for large desalination plants to be constructed later on were in the works, and the freshwater from those plants was to be distributed through the sealed bottom third of the utility tunnels to water reservoirs for additional hydroelectric power generation, drinking water and agricultural irrigation during times of drought.  The utility tunnel water distribution system would also help to disperse flood waters, with all excess freshwater being dumped into the Ogallala Aquifer.

The utility tunnels were also used to hold pipes for the distribution of refined petroleum products from government-run refineries around the country for use in both public and private vehicles.  Oh yeah, the major oil companies threw a genuine hissy-fit over this program, but after seeing news of them making billions upon billions in profits each quarter while charging an average national price of over $4 for a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, their grievances did not receive much support from the general population.

Ironically, the major oil companies found allies in environmental groups.  For they were counting on the oil companies’ greed to keep driving the prices for petroleum products high enough to force more and more  people to stop driving vehicles burning gasoline and diesel.  However, when Zeke convinced them of how serious he was about helping to develop reasonably-priced electric vehicles with enough power to replace even diesel-powered big trucks, which was backed up by him talking Congress into funding the placement of very low-cost charging stations no more than 100 miles apart on all government-maintained roadways, all but the most radical environmentalists backed off.

The major oil companies discovered that they had not bought as much influence in Washington, DC as they thought, and so did the major pharmaceutical drug companies.  For Zeke had the health care program he implemented in Arkansas expanded to include government production of medicines and medical equipment.  Amazingly, many pharmaceutical drugs going for hundreds of dollars per dose were made available for less than a dollar for several doses.  The price for a government-manufactured MRI scanner was $3 million, including installation costs, less than machines made by privately-owned companies, and even motorized wheelchairs could be sold to the public for less than $250, with heavy-duty regular wheelchairs going for around $75.

Zeke stayed true to his policy of giving privately-owned companies a fair chance to compete for business by adding a 10% profit margin to the price for the pharmaceutical drugs being produced in government facilities, but he hoped that none of the major pharmaceutical companies would try to play nice for a change.  For after it was discovered that they had been holding up treatment advances for years so that they could maximize their profits through patenting formulas only slightly more effective than the one before while already having the most effective formula perfected, Zeke did not want to have anything to do with them.

As it turned out, Zeke had nothing to worry about.  For the major pharmaceutical drug companies were only interested in defending their honor by claiming that making huge profits on patented formulas was necessary to pay for the research and development of new and improved formulas that can take many years to complete.

It was an old line well-practiced by the major pharmaceutical drug companies, and it did not take long for it to be proven quite untrue.  For when efforts were focused on truly finding cures instead of simply securing patents worth billions, incredible breakthroughs were being made in a matter of months, sometimes even mere weeks, instead of every seven years or so, which is the usual length for patent protection against competitors.

Moreover, those breakthroughs were not costing the federal government billions.  For teams of research scientists already in place at several state universities across the country started truly collaborating with each other purely for the advancement of medical science instead of competing against one another for corporate grants.

In all fairness to the major pharmaceutical drug companies’ position, another big reason for why it was now taking far less time and money to make new pharmaceutical drugs available was the process for government approval being greatly streamlined.  On the other hand, this was accomplished before the federal government started actually making their own pharmaceutical drugs, and the companies still stuck with their old line.

Streamlining the pharmaceutical drug approval process was one of a great many things that were changed about the federal bureaucracy under the direction of Zeke, and these changes made it possible to implement all of his new programs without raising tax rates, nor adding to the national debt.  Just changes to the Social Security Administration policies and procedures, as well as the staff administrating them, alone freed up over $137 billion a year for use on other things.

No, social security benefits were not being cut.  That is, at least not for those who should have been receiving them, but billions in social security benefits were cut for those who should have been receiving other kinds of much more effective help.

The rest of the cuts to the Social Security Administration’s budget were in administrative costs, where billions were being wasted each year on such idiotic things as having different field offices duplicating the work of other field offices.  This always led to complications needing to be resolved by other field offices, who added even more to the complications, with everything having to be finally settled by the national headquarters office, whose workers were constantly complaining about being overworked and underpaid.

As with the Arkansas social welfare programs, the biggest changes to the federal ones were due to drastic changes in the way they were being administered down through to the social workers in the field.  For billions had been wasted on programs that sure sounded good in the press while actually being worthless when it came to truly helping the poor and needy.

Changes to deployment procedures in the military did much more than just save the federal government money.  For overall moral increased dramatically when the policy of moving personnel around to different duty stations so much was stopped.

Another big change to the military was expanding its role to include newly-formed active duty National Guard units replacing the US Border Patrol and serving in support positions to state and county police and fire departments.  Many of those new National Guard units were fashioned after the Army Corps of Engineers model, but there were combat-ready elements to all of them.

Newly-formed National Guard units also took over much of the field work formerly performed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Marshals Service, which set the stage for those agencies and their hefty budgets to be eliminated.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation was expanded to directly oversee the operations conducted by the National Guard units in place of the eliminated agencies and take up the slack.

Another big change to the role of the military was professional accreditation being officially given for service as everything from medics to mechanics, which included the necessary schooling.  For the way it had been working was that experience gained through military service generally did not count toward professional accreditation in many fields, which forced veterans to have to practically start all over again with schooling and on-the-job training if they wanted to secure a really good job after leaving military service.

No, privately-owned businesses would not be forced to recognize the government accreditations, but to refuse would be to cut off their noses to spite their faces, so to speak.  For with there now being so many opportunities to work for the government in a civilian position at very competitive wages, the privately-owned businesses simply could not afford to be all that choosy about who they hired if they wanted to stay in business.

Speaking of such, another thing about employment opportunities that drastically changed was privately-owned businesses no longer being forced to hire people they did not want to on account of the color of their skin, religious beliefs and other such issues.  No, the anti-discrimination laws were not rescinded, but with people of all races, colors and creeds being very welcome to come work at often much, much better jobs for state/federal-run businesses and projects, there was no longer a need to enforce them, which added up to more government savings each year.

Zeke succeeded in gaining approval for an immigration policy that allowed the undocumented already in the country to stay and gain citizenship if they demonstrated a sincere desire to truly become an American, along with the borders being opened up to all others wanting the same thing.  Those who did not have a firm grasp on the use of English were given jobs in state and federal-run businesses and projects where they also received intensive help with mastering the language.  Help was also available for those having a hard time adjusting to the ways of American society.

No, Zeke’s immigration policy was not very well received at first, and neither was his proposal to make drastic changes to federal criminal-sentencing guidelines.  For critics considered them to be a return to the brutality of Old Testament justice that a modern and much more civilized society just could not abide by.

Zeke considered the changes perfectly sensible and certainly most cost-effective.  For the difference between someone simply making a stupid mistake that resulted in a law being broken and someone with true criminal intentions needed to be recognized, and when it was, many court dockets could be kept fairly clear and most prisons emptied-out.

Depending on what they did, first-time offenders would usually just face counseling meant to help them avoid making more stupid mistakes and restitution when damage to person(s) or property occurred.  Second-time offenders and those doing something serious the first round would face some jail-time focused on true rehabilitation, with the amount of jail-time being based on the severity of the personal problem to overcome.  The mentally-ill and chemically-dependent would receive treatment in a medical facility until they could function well on their own.

No, there was not much opposition to those two changes—except for hardcore social conservatives demanding harsher punishments, but Zeke’s third major change brought up bile from liberal stomachs, which is usually much more acrid than the conservative variety.  For he wanted the death penalty imposed on all determined to have a true criminal nature, even if their last offense was merely petty theft, with a mandatory wait of five years before execution so that all mitigating factors could be exhaustively explored and addressed.

Zeke’s argument was based on it being an exercise in futility to keep incarcerating those who had no intention of ever being law-abiding citizens—let alone contribute to the overall good of society.  Moreover, the old system actually encouraged convicts to re-offend by marking them as being a risk to society, which kept them from securing good legitimate employment after they had served their time.  So, if some debts to society can never be truly paid-off, how could it not be crueler to keep the guilty alive behind bars than ending their misery?

When the more religious started screaming about only God having the right to end a life, Zeke referred to the sword mentioned in Romans 13:1-6, and gently pointed out where their stand against capital punishment made it harder for the skeptical to believe in the existence of Heaven.  For why would they be against making it possible for a tortured soul in this world to go to a better place much sooner than later unless they did not really believe that such a place existed?     

All in all, over $2 trillion from the budget Zeke inherited was reallocated each year for use on truly effective measures.  When many of those truly effective measures started paying for themselves, more and more was spent on paying off the national debt, which was up to $20 trillion when Zeke took office.

The stage was now set for Zeke to propose an institution of a flat federal tax rate of 15% on personal and corporate incomes until the national debt was completely paid off, at which time the rates could, and arguably should, be lowered even more.  Part of the proposal was that US-based multi-national corporations would have to repatriate funds now being held in foreign accounts or lose their status as a US-based corporation, and with the promise of a much lower tax rate being the most feasible with privately-owned businesses and government working together to lessen the gap between the haves and have-nots, trillions of dollars in corporate funds were made available to be taxed, which contributed to $1 trillion more of the national debt being paid off each year.

No, the other countries were not very pleased with losing the tax revenues they were receiving from those corporate trillions, but already greatly benefiting from Zeke’s foreign policy directives kept international incidents down to a minimum.  For when American aid was now being offered, it did not come with very cumbersome strings attached, and it also helped that several in places of power overseas actually knew Zeke from when he had been on his magical mystery tour years before.

At the beginning of Zeke’s seventh year in office, he heard talk of a repeal of the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution being in the works.  This is the amendment that limits a president’s term in office to no more than 10 years, and with Zeke’s popularity rivaling that of George Washington’s when he accepted Lord Cornwallis’ sword after the battle of Yorktown, the repeal of it, which would become the 28th Amendment, was sure to be passed by Congress and ratified by the minimum number of states long before the next election.

In a special address before a joint session of Congress, Zeke broke down in tears while trying to express just how much he appreciated such an overwhelming show of support.  He went on to say that he supported the repeal of the 22nd Amendment and that term limits should not be in place for any public office.  For he believed that properly informed voters participating in free elections served as a sufficient guard against abuses of power while imposing term limits just cheated the public out of receiving all of the good they could out of great leaders.

As far as most in the country at that time was concerned, all would have been just fine if Zeke had of ended his address right there, but he added that he did not want to serve a third term as president on account of feeling that it would be in the best interest of his family to go back home to the Triple-E.  A stunned silence fell over the great hall, but when he ended his address with declaring that he had absolute confidence in the leaders already in place and waiting in the wings to take the United States of America to heights of strength and compassion few dared to dream of, a thunderous standing ovation erupted.  With the address being nationally-televised, few doubted that the thunderous standing ovation was limited to just those in attendance.

It was nothing like the first seven, but one could hardly consider Zeke’s last year in office to be uneventful.  For there was plenty of fine-tuning needing to be done to programs, policies and procedures, as well as fires to put out—both literally and figuratively.

You sure would not have heard anyone on Zeke’s Secret Service detail talking about how easy they were having it.  For Theresa came ashore near Pensacola, Florida as a very strong category five hurricane during that last year of his presidency, and Zeke was among some of the very first to respond.

No, we are not talking about a staged photo-op here.  For Zeke was always willing to lend an actual helping hand when he saw an opportunity to do so, and being in the middle of the action, even in a limited capacity, let him see for himself if improvements to policies and procedures were needed to be made.

It took some getting used to, but most of Zeke’s Secret Service detail came to greatly admire him for being so willing to grab a chainsaw during a forest fire or jump into a boat to help rescue stranded people and their critters during times of severe flooding.  Although, you would still not hear any of them talking about how easy they were having it.

Despite being somewhat easier, another thing that his Secret Service detail had to get used to was Zeke liking to go for a drive and take long walks out of the public eye whenever he wanted to really think about something. Adding a few more grey hairs to the heads of his detail was that these excursions often involved going out at odd hours of the night and in inclement weather.

It was during one of those think sessions the night before he was scheduled to make his first major speech after leaving office at the University of Arkansas’ main campus in Fayetteville when Zeke spotted someone sitting by themselves under a gigantic weeping willow next to a small creek north of the main house of the Triple-E.  Since the person was almost completely covered with snow, it was hard to tell if he was looking at a man or a woman—not to mention being alive or dead.

Much to Zeke’s surprise, his Secret Service detail evidently had not seen the person.  For they were not making any moves in that direction.  So, Zeke went over to see if he could be of some assistance to the person sitting in the snow, and when their eyes met, Zeke’s mind went blank.