The Legislative Branch is at
an all-time low in approval rating in various polls because it not only refuses
to do its job of legislating to resolve or solve problems, its members can't
even negotiate compromise measures that will benefit their back-home constituencies.
In other words, most members of Congress
no longer represent the People, but represent whatever special interest group
bought their election and their office.
Today, half of the members of Congress are millionaires or
multi-millionaires, which means that they are members of an elite faction --
Plutocrats. This elite-owned group is so
dysfunctional, they cannot (won't) even pass legislation like immigration
reform or extended background checks for gun purchases even though the
population at large favors such legislation by 70-80%. However it may look to us, they know what
they are doing, and every move is calculated to bring them closer to their
goal: to enhance their control and their wealth. For them, the current dysfunction in the
Congress is a tool, not a failing. It
serves their goal of weakening the federal government, de-regulating all
industry, and getting rid of social programs that they do not wish to fund or
support.
According to data from
Spectrem Group, the Chicago-based wealth research firm, there are now 8.99
million U.S. households whose net worth totals $1 million or more (not
including primary residence). That is up from 8.6 million in 2011 and just
short of the all-time record set in 2006, when the United States had 9.2
million millionaire households. However,
the number of individual millionaires remains at about 1% of the total
population of the U.S. Yet, this small
group basically holds sway over our government, our economy, our schools, our
banks, our investments, and even of our tax system. By means of a conspiratorial Plan (recall
those secret meetings of wealthy corporation owners with the Koch brothers),
they are out to take over ("revolutionize") our systems and our
institutions. Their Plan is to operate
everything according to Right-wing ideology, and they have made too much head-way
for any of us to be comfortable with what they are doing.
The Executive Branch of
government - the so-called "federal bureaucracy" -- is so
dysfunctional that it can't get wounded veterans to proper treatment in a
timely fashion. It cannot do much about
illegal immigration, nor about humanitarian aid to refugees (mainly children)
who are trying to flee repressive and violent regimes or cultures in South
America. It can't even produce a
healthcare website without major problems because it has so little control over
private contractors. In addition, much
of its work in secret ("intelligence" work) is exactly that and is
hidden from most of us by a veil of secrecy that only now and then has a slit
in its fabric for all to gain a glimpse of what we do behind that veil.
However, this dysfunction is nothing new;
the bureaucracy has been out-of-control for some time. Unfortunately, now that we have the
technological knowledge to resolve many bureaucratic tangles, we do not have
the wherewithal to afford to put effective practical hardware and software plus
proper personnel in place! The
bureaucracy is so large that we can't afford to equip it adequately. It is so large and unwieldy that no President
can easily move it or get it to function quickly and effectively through
Executive Order (perhaps excluding Special Ops forces that brought down Osama
bin Laden!).
It is basically a myth that an effective businessman or administrator as President could coordinate and oversee this labyrinth more efficiently and effectively, for it is essentially a diverse group of unrelated departments all functioning according to their own history, milieu, norms, customs and rules, with common threads between departments less obvious than their differences. Loyalty is often measured by department standards, not by federal standards, and, in some cases, that misplaced loyalty affects what the departments or offices fail to tell the President or his staff.
We can find pockets of
efficiency and effectiveness in certain departments and offices, usually with a
narrow scope of operations and purpose, but in the broadest sense, one can expect
to find uncertainty, disinformation, ineffectiveness and incompetence no matter
who is the President. And yet, we do see
the Executive branch operate well enough that we forget the dysfunctions until
attention is drawn to them. After all,
our mail arrives as do our social security checks, our taxes are collected, our
medical needs met by Medicare and Medicaid, our emergencies are met by first
responders, our military functions keep us safe, and schools provide education
every day of the week. So, what's the
problem?
The Veterans Administration
is just one example of dysfunction, and it appears to go much deeper than the
fact that some veterans failed to obtain an appointment or any treatment, even
though paperwork had been submitted as initiating a claim. It appears from testimony of
"whistleblowers" before a House Committee, that the top personnel are
not being held accountable for their actions, that middle management and others
are being poorly trained, and that an "atmosphere" exists that does not
put the veterans' needs and service first and foremost. The testimony indicates that the VA is a
mess, pure and simple. Is this Barack Obama's
fault? Probably not, since many of the
problems existed before his presidency.
The problems of VA autonomy, separation from the White House and other
departments within the Executive Branch and reluctance to utilize outside resources
are evident and need to be explored in-depth.
Having dwelt on the
dysfunction, let me also say that President Obama has issued the smallest
number of Executive orders of all the Presidents in recent history. In the absence of congressional legislation,
and to avoid tie-ups within large departments, the President has instead acted
on his own to make things happen. During this broad salvo about dysfunction,
let us remind ourselves of some of the important accomplishments of this
President through Executive Orders or Presidential Memoranda (some of which
involved getting a department or office to act, and some of which did not):
*--Use of torture by CIA and military to interrogate
prisoners prohibited; ordered
a review of our detention and interrogation policy prohibited use of torture;
and ordered interrogators to limit their actions to the Army Field manual
*--Within days after taking office, Obama signed an
Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste
and abuse
*--Created the post of Chief Performance Officer,
whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal
government money.
*--On his first full day, he
froze White House salaries
*--He committed to phasing
out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems
*--Through an executive order, he created the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
*--Obama created business.gov, which allows for online
collaboration between small businesses and experts re managing a business; also
launched recovery.gov, so that taxpayers could track spending from the Recovery
Act.
*--Obama crafted an Executive order establishing the
President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial
education for all Americans
*--Obama ordered 65 executives who took bailout money
to cut their own pay until they paid back all bailout money
*--He established a Consumer Protection Financial
Bureau designed to protect consumers from financial sector excesses
*--Obama appointed the first ever Special Assistant to
the President for Disability Policy.
*--He extended benefits to
same-sex partners of federal employees.
*--He issued a Presidential Memorandum reaffirming the
rights of gay couples to make medical decisions for each other.
*--Obama wrote and signed an
Executive Order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure
that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies evaluate the effect of their policies
and programs on women and families
*--He signed an Executive Order that established the
White House Office of Urban Affairs
*--He re-established and reinforced our partnership
with NATO and other allies on strategic international issues. Closed a number
of secret detention facilities.
*--He returned our focus to Afghanistan,
and began the process of withdrawing our troops. Fulfilled campaign promise and
ended our involvement in Iraq.
*--He signed an order banning
gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the Executive Branch.
*--He signed an order banning anyone from working in
an agency where they had lobbied in previous years. He also put strict limits
on lobbyists’ access to the White House.
*--He held the first-ever online
town hall from the White House, and took questions
*--He crafted an Executive
Order on Presidential Records, which restored the 30-day time frame for former
presidents to review records
All this occurred just within
the first few years of his Presidency. I
haven't even gotten to some of the Orders he has signed since then, including several
regarding sanctions on Russia, establishing minimum wage for government
contractors, establishing an Executive Emergency Board and improving critical
infrastructure cybersecurity! With his
determined Republican detractors, he can't win no matter what he does: he's leading from behind if he doesn't act
precipitously; or he's lazy because he plays golf or drinks a beer with someone
somewhere; or, he's being sued for acting when Congress refuses to act. Often, he is blamed for consequences or
outcomes originally put into law by Republicans. Thus, if he puts a waiver on something in the
ACA to accommodate small businesses, he gets sued for it, even though he was
following what the Republican Congress asked him to do! The President has been one of the most
prolific we have had in a long time in terms of
pieces of legislation signed and executive actions that made a
difference in how government operates.
Even LBJ might be envious!
The Judicial Branch is in the
spotlight of dysfunction right now. At
times, it now seems incapable of determining what the Constitution says or means
mainly because the Court operates with a conservative majority who are loyal to
certain tenets and principles that can't be easily found in the
Constitution. These right-wing Justices
tend to rule according to their conservative ideology and then try to find a
basis for that in the Constitution or in legal precedent. Sometimes they succeed -- as with the ACA;
and other times they fail miserably, as with Hobby Lobby, McCutheon, Quinn, and
McCauley. This is a Court intent on
destruction of rights (speech vote, collective bargaining), benefits (women's
health), safeguards and protection (McCauley), equality under the Law
(nullification of part of voting rights act) and no establishment of religion
(Hobby Lobby), except for the wealthy.
As far as the right-wing judges are concerned, the SCOTUS is functioning
just fine. For the rest of us, every day
in a term seems to bring another decision that diminishes, damages or
eliminates something that we thought we could count on as stable.
All three branches of the
federal government are dysfunctional, which leaves us where? We may have only one recourse: the fourth branch of this democracy -- the People. It is not talked about a lot, but the
Constitution does say in its Preamble that the Constitution is established by
the People. Then, there is that mention
of this other branch in Amendment X, which puts a proper cap on the Bill of
Rights (the first Ten Amendments that constitute rights granted to "the
People."):
"The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, not prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the
people." (Emphasis mine)
Moreover, don't you just love Amendment XIV, Section
1?
"No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The time has come
to take this Fourth Branch more seriously as an entity with potential power and authority. It is therefore, my intention, to bring to
your attention (as I have briefly in past posts such as 5/26/14, 3/23/14,
1/18/12 and 6/20/10), the importance of placing ordinary citizens in positions
that can directly influence the governing of this nation. Some would argue that the states are the
Fourth Branch, but I prefer to think of them as adjuncts to federal government,
operating often in compliance with federal laws, appropriations, and grants,
rather than as a separate branch.
Arguably, the People have greater standing as a separate Branch, since
they are seen as citizens possessing certain powers, rights and privileges
granted to them, that are not reserved or delegated directly to the states.
It is my purpose, then, to propose to you that the People need to be included at all levels of government (states included) in a role that will enhance their importance as citizens, counselors and as voters who have, albeit, undefined "powers" not delegated elsewhere. I venture to assert that some of the powers they derive is that of experience as citizens; acquired expertise by a lifetime of work or study; wisdom acquired by life's experiences, and authority gained in part by all of these attributes. We also need the practical problem-solving capacity that ordinary citizens can bring to a dysfunctional government out of their own endeavors. We desperately need the practicality and the pragmatism of our citizens inside our governmental structures, not outside and distant from them!
Thus, I propose a network of
Citizen Advisory Panels (CAPs) (or call them Peoples' Advisory Councils (PACs)
or Citizen Advisory Boards (CABs) if you prefer), to advise all elected
officials, offices, departments, commissions, committees, judges, panels,
legislators and cabinet members -- with nothing and no one excluded.
Here are my specific
proposals:
1) Ideally, a
constitutional amendment would serve to cement this concept, but that may be
entirely impractical as a first step;
2) Legislation
that makes the operation of such Panels or Councils legal and binding on all
parts of government
3) Procedures
for electing and/or appointing citizens to these positions, including basic
qualifications and disqualifications for candidates, excluding any private
money from elections and making citizen advisor elections publicly financed to
protect their unique status;
4) Place advisory
panels in Inspectors General offices wherever this is feasible and appropriate;
this might be possible by Executive Order, but may not be wise politically’
5) Assign
particular duties to every panel or council that is seated. Some of these might include: advise on
legislation pending or in progress; advise on fiscal matters, particularly on
how money is spent or can be saved; evaluate proposed goals and objectives (a
department or office Plan); evaluate accomplishments and outcomes; evaluate
private contracts in terms of cost vs. outcomes, etc.
6) Findings or
reports of all evaluations sent to the Inspector General, to the department
lead or head officer, and the White House.
7) Advocate
best practices; bring experts in for personnel training
8) Every
advisory group should have the ability by law to be a whistle-blower, if that
becomes necessary;
9) Advisory
groups should not be unduly constrained in their ability to act on areas where
they have not been invited or consulted;
10) Terms of
office should be limited to 2 or 3 terms of not more than 2 years each
11) All travel
expenses and accommodations must be furnished by the budgets for the
departments or offices served by Citizen Advisory Panels.
Our "Representative Democracy" no longer works as it should, except for the benefits it brings to the wealthiest, the most powerful, the One-Percenters, the Elite. Before the Plutocrats destroy our national government -- the one that watches out for our life, liberty, property, opportunity, welfare and rights -- I suggest to you that the only real counter to the forces of the Right-wing oligarchy now in charge is the grassroots common-sense of ordinary citizens like you and me. The Fourth Branch -- We, the People -- have to infiltrate and reform our dysfunctional three existing branches with the activism and determination of citizen commitment. We cannot get to that point until reform candidates with progressive values are elected to office. The national and state elections of 2014 will be critical to the future of this representative democracy.
