Radical Action

Radical action: The economy

2007-02-24T19:28:00Z

Bankruptcies and foreclosures are rising rapidly. Both consumer and national debt are at all-time highs. Meanwhile, productivity is producing record corporate profits which are skimmed off by the corporate executives while income stays flat for those who actually created that very productivity. (You can check out the actual numbers in numerous places.)

What this means is that America as we know it is in real danger of going the way of Third World countries were a few of the wealthy elite own everything and the rest of us become veritable serfs. The trend is unmistakable and inexorable. To reverse it will require radical action.

First: put a cap on compensation

Obscene levels of pay and perks for top executives have become the norm in corporate America, while the tax burden has been shifted to the middle-class and to future generations. We are well into a new era of feudalism where the wealth of the nation is continually being shifted toward the wealthiest. It is now time to let it be known that corporate CEOs and top executives are worth nowhere near what they receive in compensation. An absolute maximum of $5 million should be placed on the total compensation (including stock options, bonuses, private jets, etc.) that any corporate executive may skim off the profits of the corporations they control. In adition to the absolute cap should be a formula under which the highest-paid person in any corporation may receive no more than 100 times the compensation of the lowest paid employee of that corporation, but in no case should an employee be paid less than twice the income that signifies poverty level.

Second, enforce the anti monopoly laws.

Corporations improve their wealth and influence by taking over more and more of their competitors. When Ronald Reagan told the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Sherman antitrust Act ( monopoly) and the Wagner Act ( labor relations) the trend away from the widespread prosperity of the '40's, 50's, '60's and toward an ever more divided America was accelerated many times over.

Third: apply the same Social Security tax rate to all in come not just the first $97,500

Those who earn $97,500 or less per year now pay a combined tax rate of 15.3 percent of income ( the employer’s share is 7,65%) Those earning, or skimming, more than $97,500 pay a lower and lower rate as their incomes increase. For example, under $97,500 you pay 15.3 %. At $1 million that rate drops to just over one percent. At $10,000,000, it drops even further to just over one-tenth of one percent. So, the people who can most easily afford to pay the same rate as the working guys are getting by with paying a very small fraction of that rate. The wealthiest among us are already getting tons of tax breaks, subsidies, exemptions, and other government favors. They do not need the further advantage of a lower rate as their income multiplies.

Fourth: reinstate the usury laws.

People and corporations with money to lend are able to add to their wealth by charging high, sometimes obscene, interest rates to those who borrow. This additional tax falls mainly on the poor and middle-class, but also on small businesses and start-ups (which incidentally are far greater engines of employment, prosperity, and growth than the big multinationals). When the Federal Reserve allowed interest rates to climb over the 20% range at the beginning of the Reagan revolution, small businesses and other borrowers got shafted. The rich got richer, (precisely the goal of Reaganomics) and everyone else suffered, theReagan recession wiped out countless small to midsize businesses and the traditional one income family now needed multiple incomes to get by. Mom had to go to work because dad’s pay was not enough to support the family, This put a lot of new workers on the payrolls, mostly at coolie wages, and the increased number of employees enabled the Republican leadership to brag about creating jobs. But, after the Reagan-Bush recession started to become worrisome the Fed cut interest rates wayback. Then a funny thing happened: the boom of the '90s took off. The big lenders were not hurt, they still made a profit, just as much. Now, we have a situation where banks and credit card companies are charging double dip double-digit rates on ordinary balances of slamming people wish huge fees for overdrafts and late payments. Again, a tax that falls mainly on those struggling to get by, the working poor. This only further spreads the income gap.

The solution to this specific problem is to enforce an absolute cap on the interest rate that can be charged on any kind of loan or credit, with the rate applying as well to late charges and overdrafts. Banks and credit card companies will scream and mount an aggressive campaign of lobbying and bribes, plus deceptive and false advertising to fight against anything that controls the amount they can squeeze out of working folks.

The absolute maximum should be no more questions than 6% for the least creditworthy borowers. Lenders can compete with each other to get the business of the more creditworthy through more competitive interest rates. Enforcement should take place immediately with
the rewriting of any contracts or agreements that include a rate above the maximum usury.

Fifth: restore the bankruptcy laws that were in effect before Bush tried to gut them altogether.

The Bush bankruptcy-rule-tightening was purely and simply a payback to the finance industry that donated so much to GOP election campaigns.

Finally, or almost finally: require reciprocity in all foreign trade relations.

No other country should be allowed to gain massive trade surpluses with America. China, for example, sells billions to us, but buys very little from us. “Reciprocity” means that what China gets for its imports to the United States should be strictly limited to the amount the U.S. gets for its sales to China. In China's case, this would help slow down the loss of American jobs to cheap labor plants and reduce the amount China is able to devote to its massive military buildup. In effect, we are financing China's modernization. This is good for China and here should be some good as well for China's trading partners. But China’s growth should not be paid for by pushing American workers further down the economic ladder.

Radical action on these fronts will be difficult to achieve, but it must be accomplished in order to stop America's downward slide into a new form of feudalism, where a small cohort of the super-rich owns and controls the whole country and America's middle class become as serfs to the corporate “lords”.

RADICAL ACTION: HEALTH CARE

2007-01-20T21:30:00Z

RADICAL ACTION: HEALTH CARE

Universal health care is within our grasp if only we can accept the simple reality that "insurance" adds nothing to the delivery of medical services.

Insurance industry spokesmen will claim that the delivery of health care "starts with insurance": as though doctors, nurses, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and so forth are clinically unable to apply their skills and facilities to the sick and wounded unless they come into through the "insurance door." The folly of this conceit has become largely ignored during the last half century because of two significant developments, one is marketing, the other political.

Marketing

Back in the 1950's, the insurance industry was searching for ways to expand its product line. After all, there are only so many ways to package life insurance. They hit upon "sickness and accident insurance" as a way to sell more product to existing customers and to broaden the customer base by protecting people from the costs of an unexpected illness or a serious accident. Here was a product that could be sold to people who disdained life insurance for one reason or another. The general public didn't necessarily jump on sickness and accident insurance initially, but sales took off when the insurance industry got together with the labor movement and began to add S and A coverage to the collective bargaining mix. Soon it became a desirable perk in the booming U.S. economy where companies were competing to attract good workers. This was a marketing idea that worked miracles for the insurance industry's bottom line. The tragedy is that now people think it is the employer's DUTY to provide health insurance. It helped the insurance industry greatly, but hurt lot of companies substantially, including the auto manufacturers who must complete with foreign auto makers who are not saddled with huge health insurance costs.

Skyrocketing costs

By the time millions of workers were covered, causing billions of dollars to flow into insurance industry reserves, there was created a really massive amount of cash, just laying on the table. At the same time, people who now had their doctor bills paid by someone else were understandably going to the doctor more often. This is called "utilization. " In many cases, this increased utilization had an overall beneficial effect on the public health since it encouraged preventive medicine. It also encouraged development of more effective and expensive forms of diagnosis and treatment, with major breakthroughs in testing and treatment protocols, especially pharmaceuticals. Though it saved countless lives, it also multiplied the costs of health care exponentially, costs the "insurers" merely passed on to the "insured."

The result is a system in this country which is thoroughly analyzed and debated but never allowed to change substantially. The insurance industry controls health care delivery and those without insurance, (some 40 million people) often go without health care, a situation unique among developed nations.

Political

The question, and it is a fundamental one is: why does this situation persist? Why cannot the United States take advantage of the experience of other countries and construct a health care system that serves everyone, just as so many other aspects of our society are designed to be shared by all? The answer, quite simply, is that our political system is based on bribes (only we call them "campaign contributions"). A politician's primary, and absolutely controlling objective over all else, is to get elected and then to get reelected. That this takes pots and pots of money is no surprise, and neither is the fact that one of the deepest pockets in the fund-raising game is the insurance industry. Any attempt by anyone to install a health care delivery system that does not include insurance will be attacked, overtly, covertly, and every other way by the big guns of K street and every other avenue of influence available. A good example is the "Harry and Louise" advertising campaign that helped destroy the Clinton administration's attempt at improving the system in the early '80s. The Clinton plan was poorly designed and should have been substantially modified. However, its defeat was primarily an insurance industry accomplishment, as has been the defeat of every other single-payer initiative before or since.

Therefore, radical action is needed and now, to get the insurance industry out of the health-care business. Insurance has no place in medicine. It adds nothing, nothing that cannot be provided more equitably and at far less overhead cost by a single-payer system.

What kind of system is best?

There are lots of different programs in use throughout the developed world, but one of the best is in use right here in the United States. It covers everyone in its target groups, no restrictions on pre-existing conditions, premiums are affordable, administrative overhead costs are minimal, a fraction of insurance industry costs. This system has been in use and proven itself for generations. It is called Medicare and its experience and methodology in covering the most difficult segment of the population, the seniors, are readily transferable to the population as a whole.

Medicare controls costs by putting a cap on specific charges by doctors and hospitals. It controls utilization by analyzing the claims of all providers for each individual patient, and is subject to congressional oversight which helps protect individuals from egregious denials of service and dangerous delays which are only too often experienced by "insured" patients.

Opposition

The naysayers will decry another bureaucracy, a costly entitlement program of social engineering. It is their favorite battle cry against anything designed to make things better for those who do not have it all. The trouble is, it does not hold water in the single-payer debate. Consider for just a moment the massive amounts of cash being funneled to the insurance industry every month in the form of premiums. How much does your employer pay on your behalf? How much do you pay for private insurance? If uninsured, how often do you put off necessary medical attention because you cannot afford it? How many hospitals are struggling to keep emergency rooms open because they are overwhelmed by "uninsured" patients?

You could take the total amount of insurance premiums now going to the insurance industry,( including above-average profits, and huge executive salaries), cut that amount in half, and it would probably be more than enough to cover a single payer system like Medicare, even with some of Medicare's flaws corrected, principally the amount it pays providers. The old saw based on the "inherent inefficiency of government bureaucracies" also bombs when you compare Medicare's total overhead cost against that of the insurers.

Radical action needed

Politicians, some well-meaning, are trying to broaden health care delivery to include at least some of those presently uninsured, but they're all still on the insurance industry leash. They want to provide "insurance" to the "uninsured." They want employers and even doctors to help foot the bill. One prominent governor has been opposed to any single-payer plan on the foolish notion that it would "limit choices and innovation while forcing rationing and long waiting lines for care." These insurance talking points are baloney. All doctors would very likely support Medicare if the reimbursement was more reasonable. For that matter, a single-payer system should require all doctors to participate or lose their license,. . And how long are waiting lines at emergency rooms now? The answer is simple and compelling. Single-payer systems work well elsewhere and we already have a working system here in the form of Medicare. With a few improvements, it could be rolled out to cover everyone and the results would be historic: everyone would be covered, the care would be better, and the overall cost would be far less.

Who will carry the ball?

Radical action needed in Iraq

2007-01-16T15:02:00Z

Several key words in a recent Bush interview (Sunday night, January 14th) expose the delusionary bubble this administration is still in. "Going forward" really translates to "stay the course", a policy long ago proven dead wrong. "Criticism without credible alternatives" ignores the reality that any strategy which removes our troops from the insurgent's I E D's and cross-hairs, and out of the Sunni/Shiite crossfire would be a far superior alternative than to continue doing what we've been doing which only gets more Americans killed without having any effect, except negative, on the Iraq situation. But the most telling word was where Bush said "... if we do not succeed in Iraq ..." This discloses the Bush delusion in a word: It is no longer a question of "IF" we do not succeed. Success was long ago put out of reach by the monumental incompetence of the war's management, for which Bush claims he owes no apology to the Iraqi people. "Not at all" he says. No apology for "shock and awe" which destroyed the country's infrastructure. None for the looting, the disbanding of the Iraqi army, and limiting our reconstruction contracts to U.S. firms thereby putting more and more Iraqis out of work. None for the "targeted air strikes" to take out "suspected enemy leaders"P regardless of collateral damage. None for the half-baked notion that we could do this war on the cheap with less than half the troops recommended by the General Staff, one of which was fired for his recommendation. In the face of all this, Bush will not budge. Is impeachment of both Bush and Cheney now the only real alternative to this continued criminal incompetence? Who will take the initiative? Pelosi can't because it would appear to be self-serving since she is next in line, but someone has to do it. The stakes for the country are too high for any delay.

RADICAL ACTION--IRAQ

2006-12-31T21:26:00Z

Many reasons have been given for keeping our forces in Iraq: “destroy Al Qaeda, support their fledging democracy, fight them there so we won’t have to fight them here,” and so on.NOT ONE OF THESE REASONS HOLDS WATER! Therefore, RADICAL ACTION is essential NOW to get us out of Iraq!

First, we must DISENGAGE!. Not “cut and run”, not pull out, no “phased withdrawal,” but a complete disengagement. Which means getting our troops out of the cross-hairs of the Iraqi population which is thoroughly infiltrated with people who want nothing more than to get rid of Americans, by whatever means.

We must face it. Our troops are sitting ducks! The very worst action any military commander could take is one that makes his troops sitting ducks. No commander who would do this deserves to remain in his post.

To disengage means to move troops out of the population centers of Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, Basra, and anywhere else where they will be exposed to snipers, roadside bombs,or ambushes. Our military contingent should be posted along the borders of Iraq to prevent further infiltration and smuggling of arms and supplies to insurgents, especially from Syria and Iran. We should deploy our troops in positions that can be easily supplied by air or without the need to travel along roads which are exposed to insurgent activity.

It is hard to imagine that the situation in Iraq could get any worse than it is now.   But even if it does, we must face the reality that it is not a problem we can solve. We should simply allow the Iraqis, themselves, to continue to kill each other, if that's what they want to do, until either they get tired of it, or some party prevails and establishes control of the government. If this party is friendly and cooperative to the United States we should give them every bit of help we can in the rebuilding of their country, but not the policing of their populace. If the governing party is not friendly to the United States we should tell them to go to hell, say “goodbye,” and pull our troops out entirely. This would probably require a generation or more to regain any respect for America in the Middle East (and much of the rest of the world), but it is going to take that, anyway, now that our G O P-dominated government has put us into this situation.

Second, we must save Afghanistan.

We chased the Taliban into Pakistan the with the help of the Northern Alliance. Then we simply abandoned that country to the warlords who rule everything outside Kabul itself. Now, the Taliban is back in force, taking over the country, burning down schools and terrorizing the populace.

This time, let's do it right. Let’s seal the borders like we should have done originally but didn't. This will keep the Taliban bottled up inside Afghanistan until we can wipe them out, and keep their reinforcements from moving in from Pakistan. Then let us go all-out to get roads built so farmers can get their produce to market, destroy the opium crops and subsidize other forms of agriculture, maintaining a strong and aggressive military force against any anti-government elements and secure protection of the populace against the resurgence of Taliban or warlords.

In other words, let us finish the job we started, then abandoned, in order to bash Iraq. Afghanistan has the potential to be a really successful mission, whereas Iraq has no hope of any kind of successful outcome with us there, no “victory” no “win.” Yet our government chooses to keep digging us into this deeper hole.

Of course, there is little to gain from looking back now except to learn how to avoid another situation like we have had for the last six years, where one political party such as the GOP, replete with arrogant, incompetent, ambitious, and corrupt politicians with a “we can do no wrong” attitude controlled all three branches of government. Voices of reason were demonized, shunned, or shunted aside entirely. We can’t know what would have happened if those voices of reason had prevailed. But it is easy to speculate:

After 911: Here are some “WHAT-IFS”

WHAT IF we had stayed in Afghanistan until al Qaeda was eliminated, Bin Laden captured,   and the Taliban destroyed (not merely chased into Pakistan) then made heavy investments in roads and infrastructure: schools, hospitals, power stations, telephone systems and so forth? What would Afghanistan be like now?

OR, instead of invading and destroying Iraq with “shock and awe,” what if we had given arms and air cover to the Shiites and Kurds and let them take down Saddam without any American soldier even setting foot in Iraq? How many more of our fine military would be alive today? Who could say that the situation in Iraq would be any worse than it is today? Would America be such a pariah in the rest the world? Would America be capable of leading and/or influencing other countries to solve many of the problems bedeviling Africa, for example?

OR, after invading Iraq, we sealed the borders to prevent infiltration of jihadists from Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, secured the ammunition dumps to keep those munitions out of the insurgents hands, and lowered the boom on looters, AND appointed anyone in the world except L. Paul Bremer to head the Coalition Provisional Authority?

OR, what if we had kept Saddam's army intact with better pay under U.S. command to avoid them becoming insurgents?

OR,what if we had used Iraqi contractors for reconstruction work instead of giving all the jobs to American companies, thus keeping so many thousands of Iraqi men unemployed and resentful?

OR, what if we kept American military out of sight, avoiding the typical military “patrols” which only make our troops sitting ducks against snipers, ambushes, and roadside bomb?

OR, what if we avoided dropping 2,000 lb. bombs on houses were “suspected bad guys might be hiding” and used commando-type raids instead, thus to avoid killing so many civilians and thereby converting so many more otherwise-helpful Iraqis to the insurgency?

NO, this is not hindsight. All these options were available at the time and should have been more than obvious to anyone who gave it a moment's thought. But we did not. So, now we have a situation that, again, is so terrible it defies description.

RADICAL ACTION ON IMMIGRATION

2006-12-31T21:24:00Z

They came here to work. Their work is essential, a fact that the deporters keep ignoring. To “sweep” now after all these years is barbaric. The “hate’em” crowd, having worn out the old bogeymen of gays,Godless, and free-choice advocates have found a new target: illegals!

So, recognizing that the United States economy would literally grind to a halt without the 11 or so million illegals now in the country, let us do something to solve the problem and let the hate’em crowd find some other cause of the day. Keep in mind that whether you admit it or not, most, (indeed all but a tiny fraction) of illegals are harder-working, more honest, more family-oriented, more true to their faith, and all-around better citizens than most natural-born white Americans. Face it!

Piecemeal, politically-motivated legislation will not solve the immigration problem to anyone’s satisfaction. What is needed is...

RADICAL ACTION!

First, get serious about border control: with massive deployment of personnel, equipment and, where necessary, physical barriers to stop illegal entry which adds to the problem which we haven't yet figured out how to solve. Above all, border control should be conducted humanely. Recognizing in all cases that these are human beings, good people, trying to find a better life for themselves and their children, or a least to help out the family back in their home country. That cannot in any way be considered a wrongful motivation. Also, it should not be that hard to distinguish between a Christian Hispanic and a Muslim Arab.

At the border, install more gates and beef up personnel numbers to reduce the long lines of legitimate immigrants waiting to cross.

Second, get a good handle on who is here now and what they want to do: Do they want to stay and become citizens, work for a while then go back home permanently, or come and go as migrant workers filling in where needed? To accomplish this, every non-citizen over the age of 12 in the country must be recorded, census- style, photographed and fingerprinted. Complete information should be obtained including place and date of birth, parent's names, (for reference and verification where appropriate) name of their employer (if employed) and place of employment, current mailing address and phone and cellphone number, and if such has been issued, a Social Security number. This information when gathered and tabulated will give us the length, breadth, and character of the situation. The massive amount of clerical work involved in establishing this database will be invaluable when it comes to actually doing something about the “problem.”

The taking of this census and registering the identity of the illegal population must, above all else, be carried out in a non-threatening manner giving full assurance that no one will be deported or incarcerated on the basis of the information being gathered, with the obvious exception of persons wanted for criminal reasons.

Third, Settle and legalize the status of all immigrants, without amnesty, or forgiveness of any legal transgressions they may have committed. This can be accomplished by putting all undocumented immigrants on probation. This probation should last for enough time to allow them to apply for some form of legal status. Legal status could take several forms such as: A, “ migrant worker” “which would allow travel into and out of the U.S. and among the various states when seasonal labor is required: B, “ temporary resident”, applicable to students and short-term workers who will leave at some unspecified future date; C,” future citizen” including all who apply or who already have applied for permanent citizenship and who must fulfil the requirements for such within a specified time frame, perhaps as much as five years.

With the status of illegals established, educational resources must be committed to assist citizenship applicants in fulfilling their requirements. VISTA volunteers should be recruited to teach at night schools throughout the country. Proficiency in the English language should be a requirement of citizenship. This will help curb the slide toward Balkanization that is resulting from our “ multilingual” society.

When we have assimilated these valuable, productive, and loyal citizens into the population of the United States, it will be a far better country!

Welcome to Radical Action

2006-12-29T18:00:00Z

Welcome to Radical Action, the site for keeping track of Howard Sosbee's collected thoughts and ongoing opinions. Please use the blog features to comment on anything you see here, open dialog is important to keeping this country secure in the face of the onslaught of the Bush administration.

Katrina's aftermath a national disgrace

2006-12-29T17:53:00Z

RADICAL ACTION NEEDED

In a letter to the San Jose (CA) Mercury News, Roy Verley of Mountain View stated the case quite clearly and we quote:

“Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans has been called the worst natural disaster ever to strike this country. Incredibly, the bungled “recovery” has now been exposed as something even worse. It is a national disgrace. The Bush administration after promising to rebuild this national treasure has become ever more concerned by the war in Iraq, growing international tensions, it's plunging approval ratings and more. It has thrown money and rhetoric at the problem but little heart or leadership. As hope fades for our fellow citizens who have lost everything, all Americans should be ashamed. We may call ourselves the greatest country in the world, but what's happening in New Orleans is not indicative of greatness. It's a pointed reminder that our national priorities, leadership and perhaps even our consciences needs some work."

Obviously, piecemeal picking at the problem by incompetent government agencies, greedy developers and contractors, and even well-meaning NGO’s, cannot get the job done. therefoe,

Here is what the President should do:

The president should issue an executive order establishing a super powerful task force to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, strength the levees, and reestablish barrier island buffer zones, all while hastening the return of the local population to their home neighborhoods and providing interim support until all this is achieved. This recognizes that government, neither federal, state nor local is institutionally capable of dealing with this disaster and its aftereffects, as has been proven by results to date. And, most important of all, this is no time nor place for any kind of racial “re-arranging.”

The task force should report only to the president. Its appropriations should take precedence over all other government funding until such time as Congress and the President determine that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are sufficiently restored to proceed on their own.

Authority over the task force should supersede all local authorities including the mayor, governor, all state and local agencies, and many organizations created by them to deal with the Katrina aftermath. The task force could allow that work which has already begun to continue if, and only if, it could be shown to have constructive goals and respectable progress toward those goals. Profiteering, corruption, and window dressing should be investigated and eliminated with prosecution where applicable.

Resources available to the task force should include, but not be limited to, the National Guard, state police, Corps of Engineers, Seabees, FBI and the full roster of NGO’s throughout the country.

Organization and management of the task force should consist of retired military, public works and law enforcement personnel who are not currently engaged in partisan politics. Top leadership should consist of persons of such caliber as Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkoff, and others of unimpeachable character. Tight timetables should be established and, if not achieved, should require full disclosure and maximum effort to correct.

All activity should be open to review by any member of the media or government agencies, but the authority of the task force should not be subordinated to any other than a super majority of the U.S. Congress and that only to determine when the work of the task force, itself, is complete. Specific objectives, contractor selection, or activities should not be subject to change by any other than the task force. The executive branch of the federal government, other than the President, should be specifically prohibited from the exercise of any control over the work of the task force. This recognizes the extent of undue lobbying influence and the partisan political atmosphere that has been allowed to pervade all levels of federal government.

The first objective of the task force should be to remove all debris which would create an obstacle to restoration. Then to establish full infrastructure restoration including roads, bridges, public buildings, all public services including water, transportation, communications, power, sewers, waste management, police, fire, and recreation facilities. When infrastructure is in place former residents should be encouraged to return to their former home location and to live there in temporary shelters while permanent homes are being rebuilt. This will help to re-establish the crucial importance of neighborhoods. Rebuilding loans should be interest-free to individual homeowners and to landlords who agree to rent to the previous tenants or to others legitimately displaced by the storm. Trailers, RV’s, and even tents could be used for temporary living quarters while home construction is underway and should be provided, rent-free, by the task force until a permanent shelter is completed. Food-service should be supplied without cost by the established field kitchen facilities of the US Army, National Guard, Salvation Army, Red Cross and private contractors until such time as local food markets and restaurants become established.

Employment opportunities should be coordinated by an active, well-staffed and decentralized employment department with preference given to local residents. Vigorous law enforcement should be deployed to control criminal activity and assure security for the returning populace. Private enterprise should be encouraged, but predatory and racially motivated development or zoning should be discouraged and, if necessary, prevented by the task force.

Continuous and active auditing of expenditures should be conducted by the task force to prevent scams, illegitimate claims, and profiteering.

It is not difficult to visualize how the task force would be organized. A chairman should be appointed who would then recruit the other members. Staff coordinators should be hired immediately to interface with those resources necessary to the rapid achievement of the task force goals. One such coordinator, for example, could identify debris removal capabilities throughout the country and recruit as many as necessary to the effect a rapid clearing of obstructive debris. Another coordinator could establish the necessary property records to show ownership of each parcel in the affected area. These landowners should then be contacted to determine if they intended to return and rebuild. or to put the property up for sale. In the meantime, another group of coordinators could concentrate on bringing together the resources necessary to reestablish public works such as water power and waste management. Again, giving priority to local residents for contracts and employment.

Another coordinator should interface with local law enforcement and the National Guard to put in place sufficient law-enforcement patrols that would assure security throughout the area. Another (housing) coordinator could commandeer enough temporary housing units in the form of trailers, RV's, field tents, field kitchens, etc., to house and feed those residents wanting to return to their own area and live there while their homes were being repaired or rebuilt. Following the restoration of public works, individual homeowners should be able to start rebuilding and repairing with interest-free loans provided by the federal government. With the neighborhoods now consisting of consumers, former residents, contractors, law enforcement, etc., private business people could begin establish food markets, restaurants, and other types of commerce. In addition to the interest-free rebuilding loans, subsistence payments should be availableto those who need them. One coordinator could be assigned to the specific task of helping those who were carrying flood insurance to assure payments in timely fashion.

What all this requires is the assumption that old neighborhoods can be rebuilt as they were without the need for any rezoning. Every homeowner whose home was completely destroyed and removed should have the services of home planners as needed at no expense, within reason, to design a new home. Prefabricated and factory built houses should be encouraged because they cost less and go up much faster. And so on.

A task force like this could demonstrate that America is, indeed, capable of greatness. The cost will be huge in dollars, but insignificant in terms of what it will accomplish in restoring American self-respect. Will we do it? Who knows?