My letter to the White House on permanently ending unemployment

 Bud McElhaney

PO Box 115
Chase Mills, New York 13621

April 12, 2017

Subject:  A new department for the rebuilding of infrastructure, job training, and welfare reduction

Mrs. Ivanka Trump
Special Assistant to the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

I have read in the news that you’ve been appointed to a special assistant position in the White House to your father.  I respect that decision on the President’s part, and yours also.  As the father of four grown daughters, I’d have to say that I trust their opinion as much as anyone I know, and would have been delighted had they chosen to be a part of any of my own professional pursuits. Alas, they were not.

Like your father, I too have been a builder and developer.  Albeit, on a smaller scale.  But still, my projects included building a more than a few hundred homes, residential lots, shopping centers, multi-family, hotels, and the land development itself.  I do have at least a grasp of what is involved in construction and infrastructure development.    That background has given me some ideas about a long range plan that your father could begin to implement that would change America and the American labor pool for decades, for the good.

Here’s my idea for your consideration, and if you find it has merit, then perhaps you’d pass it on and at least begin a dialogue.  It’s not something that is an “all or nothing” proposition.  And perhaps some of my specific details could not be used, but I’d like you to at least consider the concept.   My own father used to tell me about advice “eat the chicken, and just throw away the bones”.

The Federal Reserve has announced that they are seeing that it’s time for them to begin reducing their balance sheet.  If they do follow through on this and start letting maturing bonds be repaid, that money will be returned to the Treasury.   

According to my data, the Treasuries that are maturing are broken down something like:
Maturing . . .
within 15 days                  13.2 billion
16 days to 90 days            48.6 billion
90 days to 1 year             163.2 billion
1 year to 5 years               1.24 trillion
over  5 years                     1 trillion

If my numbers are even close to accurate, then there will be coming into the treasury about 200 billion in the next year.   This is money that’s already been “borrowed”.  It’s not budgeted, so it’s not already spent.    

This represents more than enough for the largest single infrastructure program of any administration.   And it would not require any new taxes.

Now, though, the most important aspect of my idea.

Mrs. Trump, you might not be aware but with the United States government already is a massive system of engineers and builders that are not private sector or strictly civil servants.  They have resources, and training, experience, and know-how to build large scale public projects.    They are also spread out over many different areas within the existing military and also scattered across the country already.  In the Army they are called the Corp of Engineers.  In the Navy they are called the Seabees.   I’m not sure about the other branches.  I suspect you do know that the Corp is responsible for hundreds of water reservoirs all over America for their construction, and now management.

I would propose that the administration break out these specialties from their respective military branch and roll into one new branch of the government. I would see it as a cabinet level position.  In a manner of speaking it would be like forming the Department of Homeland Security from many other departments.  In this case it would be to take the Corp of Engineers, and Seabees, (and any others similar in the Marines or Air Force) and put them into a new branch that would still be “military” in discipline and authority and organization.  Except it would be a non-military branch of the government.   If they were not a part of the Army, Navy, Military, they would also be exempt from “posse comitatus” restrictions in the event of national emergency or crisis.

    

I have no idea what this new department would be called.  But for purposes of this letter, and idea, let’s just say it was called Rebuild America Corp  (like the Peace Corp).   I will call it here RAC.  It would be similar to the Roosevelt era WPA or Works Progress Administration.    I would assume in concept it would be easy for the President to get the left side of the aisle on board with something like this, but I would suggest avoiding the WPA comparisons to keep from alienating the right side of the aisle.

This new RAC already has the leadership and expertise in place to do large projects.  They also have knowledge of military training and discipline.   The administration would just be making them much larger.  But it would be most important, in my plan, to maintain the same rigidity of the military style of management and leadership.   And you’ll see why below.

This new RAC would need thousands of new members.    I suspect possibly even a few hundred thousand new members.  And these new members would need to be trained in many cases.   Certainly many could be enlisted for service who were already trained in college.  Perhaps these college grads would come into the RAC at an officer level?   And perhaps there could be a way to tie in a tuition forgiveness for each year of service for a college grad.    In this way, it would offer a graduate the choice of going into the military for Veterans college tuition assistance after service, or go into the RAC and get education that was already obtained, paid for.

There is also an abundance of training facilities already in place but not currently used.   Across the United States are literally hundreds of formerly used National Guard armories.   If you’ve never seen one, they are all basically a large gymnasium and a few offices, and a larger fenced in yard where that particular unit parked their trucks, tanks, and artillery.   Since the end of the cold war, many of the facilities were closed and different units of the National Guard or Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine reserve units were consolidated with others as the general force was reduced.    But it is significant that the facilities to recruit, hire, train, and motivate the new RAC members are already in place.

 

Plus there are a significant number of existing military bases that are either closed or under-utilized that could also be converted to RAC use.   It’s also important, that there are several operating military bases that should be closed, but have not been closed because the congressional representative from that area sits on powerful committees and presents a stiff opposition to closing a base in their home district.   Much of this opposition could be overcome if the “military” base was not closed, but just “reorganized” as a RAC Base.

I would suggest that the RAC perhaps acquire and open at least  one facility in every congressional district in the country.  This would be hard to be opposed by either side of the current congress.   There would be no favoritism.  It would be equally applied.   And by doing it by congressional districts you’d also be placing the most number of  “bases” in the most populated areas.   This would help with training and recruitment.

Unlike the military, the new RAC members would not live 24/7 in the RAC.   The exception might be during a period of basic training where they would go (just as the military does now) for a 2 month boot camp, followed by a 2 to 4 month AIT (Advanced  Individual Training).    In the boot camp, or basic training, they would learn what they name implies: Basic construction information plus military order and discipline.  Prior to enlistment, the new recruit would be tested to see which Basic training they were capable of completing.  This is obviously a large portion of the unemployed population today, who are unemployable because they failed to get a high school education. Or, if they did get a HS education, they did not acquire a reading and math proficiency.  To be frank, these folks would be identified and placed in the lowest rung of the organization.  Their basic training would not be the same as a person who was going to go on and be trained as a supervisor or electrician or plumber.   However, they could also be identified as being eligible for additional literacy training during their service.   The others who did meet the basic literacy proficiency could be moved into the standard basic construction training, and then be tested to see what area of specialty they would go on to after basic training.

Just as in the military and present Corp of Engineers, (and also the TSA), all members would wear government issued uniforms with rank insignia.   This would save the member money on attire and also apply a standardization to appearance and the ex-banker would appear no different to their coworkers than the ex-fry cook.

  

MOST IMPORTANTLY DURING BASIC TRAINING, they would be taught discipline and military style organization.  This is important because they must understand that this isn’t just a free ride, or a “make-work” way to pass the time of day and get a check.  They need to be taught that this is their opportunity out of the poverty lifestyle and neighborhood, or unemployment line.    But, like the military, they are not given unlimited chances and certainly no trophies for “participation”.      During training, and then afterward, they need to understand that they will be given instructions (orders) and a mission.    They can either choose to obey the instructions or not.   But the discipline for not obeying is to be furloughed without pay for a month.    Then they can return.  The next time they would be furloughed for three months.  And then they could return.   But the third time (within a reasonable time period) they would be discharged and ineligible for return (AND MORE IMPORTANT) ineligible for any future unemployment benefits.     

The RAC would basically be telling the member, 

“we have work to do for as long as you want to work here”.    

“If you choose to not work when offered a job, then you’re not going to get paid for not working”.   

I would envision a “term of enlistment” that would be perhaps two years.   You might even tie the term to the amount of training given in the advanced training.  If a person wanted a short term enlistment they would only receive the basic training and be a basic laborer and receive a sustainable wage.  If they did want to learn a valuable trade, then they would have to sign on for a longer term.

For a trained member who served out their two or three or four year term, then an allowance could be made at the end of the term to let them remain on for a period of 3 or 4 months without reenlistment if they wanted to transition back to the private sector.    In no case, could anyone except a basic trained laborer quit without notice.  And if a person did quit without notice, they would be ineligible to return to the corp for some period of time, and still not be able to draw an unemployment benefits.

In effect, unemployment insurance by the federal government would CEASE to exist.   The federal government would be saying to anyone and everyone, that they are the safety net and if you lose your job, or can’t find a job after high school that the Corp has a position open for you.  Workfare would be substituted for welfare.

If individual states chose to still have an unemployment insurance program, that would be at their sole expense.   However, most states that might choose to go on with that, would soon find that they were receiving a massive migration of unemployed people from states which participated in the Corp work program and did not have unemployment compensation.

While a member, they would receive at a minimum, a basic living median range wage. With seniority, advancement and promotion they could rise to what might even be a wage that was equivalent to private sector.  I’m not sure what the starting wage should be, but perhaps in the neighborhood of what a current E3 makes in the military now as a minimum.  Certainly much more than just the subsistence level of unemployment, but they would be working for it and performing a valuable service to the nation and maintaining their own self-respect.    The reason for a higher pay here is because an E1 in the military also gets housing and meals and potentially much more advanced training.    The member would receive free health care, and be able to get benefits for their family members at a reduced and subsidized rate.  (This is actually no additional cost because most of these unemployed are already being paid for by the government via the AFA subsidies.)

Like the military, the member could choose to make a career of the RAC and continue a ladder of achievement and responsibility and rank for 30 years.  In fact, in every way, I would design the benefits and career path to emulate the military, except require 30  years of service instead of only 20.   The military is certainly a harder, and more demanding life choice and should be afforded an earlier retirement opportunity.  

To save redundancy, I would have the retirement of the RAC administered by the Veterans’ Administration since it too, would be an “arm” just like the Coast Guard is presently covered by the VA.

Now, I offer the most dramatic impact of this proposal on the human capital employed.  This new branch would be able to not only get America’s aging infrastructure replaced and carry the country into the second half of this century as a stronger and better country, but it would also guarantee full employment of anyone who wanted a job. It would also make “job-wanters” out of many people who today have decided welfare is an easier path to an income than work.  It would demand accountability on people’s parts and there would be no more welfare except for those who were truly unemployable due to either physical or mental disability.  If a person who was able to work and refused to work, they would have to find someone to live with to pay their bills.   The government would cease providing compensation for lack of production.    

I realize this is a profound idea, but I’d even suggest that the RAC be open to single parent head of households, with children at home and that the RAC would, in addition to the members pay, give the member an additional compensation to pay for 100% of child care for all of his/her children and that number would be reduced starting in the second year to 3 children, and then 2 children in the second year.   This would be telling a person, you can have as many children as you want, but you need to take care of any above 2.

Again, as stated above, the member must be a responsible and disciplined employee during their service, because to be discharged under less than honorable conditions would also be to terminate their child care and government checks.   I can’t imagine that there would be much attitude of “I’m sick and tired of this”, because the alternative would be much worse.

That’s all that I’ve imagined.    I could probably fine tune the ideas if there was any interest at all.   Or, in the alternative, you’re welcome to tailor it to your own way of thinking and adopt the revised idea as your own.  I don’t want credit for the theory.  I’d just like to see the country rebuilt, and the people who want a job to have something that was significant and offered them an opportunity at human self-respect and dignity.    For those who don’t want something better, I’d like to at least demand of them responsibility.

This idea would work.  And it would be VERY hard to be opposed by any Congressman or Congresswoman of either political persuasion.   I believe it would be the single most lasting legacy of the President’s term and would have benefits for your own grandchildren someday, besides making the country better for this generation.   If you have actually read this far, I do thank you for at least giving it your thoughtful consideration.

Very sincerely,

Bud McElhaney
918.991.9317

Ps.  If you do happen to like this idea, or any part of it, I’ve got a dozen more.  J