Nano Surveillance (Dave Henson Series Book 1) (12 page)

Chapter 36 (March 18, Monday 7:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)

President Jesse Coleman was sitting at his desk in the Oval Office going over his speech one last time. In one hour he would introduce to the nation his “Transportation Movement Act”. His Chief of Staff, as well as the Vice President and the Secretary of Commerce, were in the room providing last minute coaching and support. It was an extremely important night for the administration. The speech had been re-written a dozen times to ensure that the President couched the major elements of the “Transportation Movement Act” in a way that the public could not only understand it, but also embrace it.

Since the Secretary had floated the “Act” nearly a couple of weeks ago out on the west coast, there had been mixed reactions from Congress. Of course his closest allies in Congress rallied around the “Act” instantly. They loved it, if not for any other reason than the fact that their most ardent campaign supporters and financial backers did so. Similarly, and as expected, the President’s traditional opponents in Congress railed against it. They had been vehemently rejecting the “Act” outright calling it another power grab from the administration that would do nothing for addressing the floundering economy or global climate change. It was the fence sitters in Congress, however, that the President was really focused on tonight. They were mainly comprised of a group of congressmen and senators who represented the rural heartland of the country. He had to prove to at least some of them tonight that the constituents in their districts would embrace the “Act”. That their constituents would see the true value of the “Act” to both the nation and themselves. The farmers in the heartland had suffered financially over the past decade, much in part due to a reduction in paid farm subsidies to them. Yes, there were a number of bad crop growing seasons over the past couple of decades, but it wasn’t the main reason for the farmers’ financial losses. But tonight he had to convince them otherwise. That global climate change was at the root of their declining farms and agricultural businesses, and not the reduction in government subsidies.

The truth was, however, that the country’s farmers didn’t need to produce as much grain as they once did. Our country can buy the grain cheaper today from other countries in Asia and Europe. Our farmers were actually doing more harm than good to the planet. By planting their crops, they were polluting the environment and actually contributing to global warming. These negatives far outweighed the benefits of helping to feed a few extra hungry mouths in third world countries. But tonight, the emphasis had to be made on global climate change as the main cause of their financial decline over the past decade. If the President could get the farmers behind him, then he could pull enough congressional fence sitters off the fence, and to his side, to pass the “Transportation Movement Act.”

“Mr. President, I just received confirmation from our communications room that all the networks are ready to broadcast your speech at 8:00pm,” said the Chief of Staff. “From what they are telling me in the communications room, the networks are apparently thrilled with the summary speech notes we provided to them earlier today. It appears you have their full support in championing the “Act” to the nation’s public.”

President Jesse Coleman stared out one of the windows of the Oval Office in deep thought. He had high hopes for tonight’s speech. His future depended upon it. He needed to get the TMA passed through Congress. His most influential supporters and largest contributors were counting on him to deliver this time. They had paid handsomely over the years to get him where he was today, and as he had been reminded more often than he cared to remember in recent months, he had failed them. There would be no more next-time if he failed to get the TMA passed in Congress.

“That’s excellent to hear,” responded the President as he turned back to his guests in the office. “We’re going to need all of our friends help to get the TMA passed through Congress. We are fortunate to have had a national press that has been so supportive of us over all these years.”

As the president completed his sentence, however, he wondered to himself how much longer the press would continue to support him if he failed getting the TMA passed through Congress. He knew who was ultimately in control of the press. It wasn’t him or his administration. It was the same men that financed much of his campaigns over the years and who had controlling ownership in the major networks and newspapers.

The Chief of Staff’s mobile phone rang. He answered the phone and quickly hit the end button.

“Mr. President, the communications team is ready for you,” said the Chief of Staff. “They’d like you to come to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room to get you mic’d up and prep’d for the speech.”

“Okay, sounds good,” responded the President.

As they stood up to depart the Oval Office Secretary Devins patted the President on the shoulder and said, “Knock it out of the park tonight Mr. President.”

The President looked at her and responded with a smile. “Nancy, if I can do half as well as you did with the business leaders, we’ll pull enough of those fence sitting congressmen to our side and get this deal done.”

The Secretary just smiled back at the President, and as she did, the NSurv team back in Idaho watched the President pass by her and out the door of the Oval Office.

Dave looked over at Ron and Dana and said, “Let’s start paying closer attention to those fence sitting congressional members. For the ones that decide to fall into the President’s camp we need to clearly understand and record why they did so. I’ll bet it won’t be from constituent support of the President’s plans that they fall in line with him. We’re going to need to deploy more assets to track all of the congressional fence sitters. Ron, work out a plan to get them under surveillance.”

              “Will do Dave, however, it could prove to be quite the logistical effort,” responded Ron. “Chasing down congressional members is akin to trying to catch un-penned chickens.”

              “I agree. However, you should be able to get access to the majority of them at the Annual Congressional Dinner that is coming up in Washington in three days,” replied Dave.

“As a matter of fact Jeff Kolosky is the Master of Ceremonies for the event,” commented Dana.

              “You’re right,” thought Dave out loud. “I know he wasn’t all too happy with you telling him that you’d be taking a leave of absence for a month to recover from your leg injury, but maybe you can talk to him again to see if you can glean some information out of him about the dinner. Any intelligence we can get up front could help make Ron and his team’s job a little easier.”

              “Yes, he wasn’t too pleased with me when I spoke to him, but he seemed to be reasonably understanding about my decision to take time off,” replied Dana. “I’ll give him a call tomorrow and see what I can find out. Overall he’s not a terribly bad guy. Like anyone else in the news industry, he’s just an extremely ambitious guy. Unfortunately in his case, he’s been managed by some very tough and wealthy men who have their own political agendas.”

              “Based on what you’re saying then, simply explain to him that you’re calling to give him a status update on your health, and that you’re looking forward to getting back to the office as soon as you’re physically able,” responded Dave. “This way he won’t become suspicious with your questioning of the dinner.”

Chapter 37 (March 18, Monday 8:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time)

The red light lit up as President Jesse Coleman looked into the lens of the camera and began to address the American public. Off to the side of the room, and out of the view of the camera lens, stood the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, Secretary of Commerce Nancy Devins, the First Lady, and a number of aides and communications room technicians. They all stood perfectly silent as they waited nervously for the President to begin speaking. They were all in this together. Each knew their way of life, including the power, wealth, and prestige that they shared, were on the line tonight. Like the President, they all knew that they were at the end of their ropes with their most ardent and wealthiest financial supporters, and that if the President failed, their careers and all the spoils that came with it were gone. As they quietly stood looking at the President he began to speak.

“Good evening my fellow Americans. Thank you for welcoming me into your homes’ this evening to share with you my vision of the future for both our country and the world. As we are all sadly aware, our country has suffered economically over the past decade. A large number of Americans are out of work today, and many have been unemployed for years. I empathize greatly with these Americans. It is an unacceptable situation that can’t be allowed to continue, nor should ever have happened in the first place. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons that occurred before my time in office, and situations that have risen under my watch that I have had little control over, we have found ourselves in this economic malaise.”

The President paused for effect and to pivot to another major topic in his speech.

“At the same time we’ve witnessed the economic decline in our country, we’ve also experienced several major natural weather catastrophes over the past decade. These catastrophes have also negatively and significantly impaired our country’s economic progress. Though there are still some non-believers out there in our country about the reality of manmade global climate change, make no mistake, it has adversely affected us. Global climate change has played a significant role in not only the health of our planet, but also in the economic health of our country. The cost of natural disaster clean-up and recovery in several of our major metropolitan cites over the past decade has been in the trillions of dollars for our nation. And this cost doesn’t include the economic loss of private businesses, which in itself is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars. Moreover, global climate change also affects the personal health and well-being of the citizens of this great land, particularly the young and elderly. The increasingly warmer temperatures during the summer months now kills thousands of people each year due to heat stroke and related ailments. Similarly, the increase in frequency of strong hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as blizzards, kills several thousand people annually now in this country.”

“Consequently, as President of this great country, I am here talking to you tonight to tell you that there is a direct relationship between the poor economic state of our country and global warming. But more importantly, I come to you tonight with a plan that addresses both of these major issues facing our country. A plan that restores our economy to its glory years, and that at the same time, addresses global climate change.”

The President paused to take a sip of water from the glass sitting next to him.

“The plan that my administration has put together is a sound plan that will provide millions of new jobs over the next decade, reduces our country’s carbon footprint dramatically, and finally, revolutionizes our public transportation infrastructure. The plan is officially named the “Transportation Movement Act”.”

“At the heart of this “Act” is a plan to install a comprehensive MAGLEV rail system in every large and small city around the country. Yes, an improved and expanded public transportation system that will transcend anything that our cities offer today in the form of rail or bus lines. Moreover, the cities will be interconnected together via a network of new MAGLEV rail lines. When completed, the new rail infrastructure will dramatically reduce our country’s reliance on the automobile. The need for personal automobile use, for anyone who lives in a city or the suburbs of a city, will effectively be eliminated.”

Again the President paused for affect and to allow the concept to sink into the viewers’ heads.

“Due to the massive size and scope of this plan, we are going to need to temporarily raise additional revenues to support the build-out of the new MAGLEV rail system. We estimate the ten year cost for construction to be in the several trillions of dollars. As a result, as your President, I will need to ask you to share in the cost of funding this plan. Again, the increase in revenues required will only be temporary, so rest assured the sacrifice each one of you will make will not be a permanent thing.”

Again the President paused for effect before continuing.

“After much consultation with my staff, we’ve decided the most appropriate way to fund the “Transportation Movement Act” is through a mileage assessment fee placed on all automobile use, be it for personal or business use. Specifically, we will assess a fee of $0.02 on each mile traveled by an automobile, regardless of how many people are in the vehicle at any time. Similarly, we will assess a fee of $0.01 on each mile traveled by a product built and/or sold in this country. Based on our calculations this “mileage tax plan” will enable us to generate all the revenues required to fully fund the “Transportation Movement Act”. Our estimations even account for the fact that a certain percentage of people will decide to start carpooling more frequently to reduce the tax burden on themselves. We understand why they may do this, and we actually applaud them for doing so. By carpooling more, not only will they save on their share of the mileage assessment fee, they’ll be the first of our fellow citizens to take the necessary steps in reducing our country’s oil dependency and shrinking our carbon footprint.”

Again the President reached for his glass of water and took a sip before continuing.

“I understand that the mileage assessment fee may sound onerous to some of you. However, I ask that you think about the long term benefits for the country. With your support we will have a state of the art national public transportation system that every other country on this planet will envy. This benefit alone is reason enough to support our plans. However, if this isn’t reason enough for you, consider the jobs it will create. The new jobs created for just the construction of the MAGLEV rail system infrastructure will be in the millions. In addition, this new public transportation system will enable new businesses to start up and existing ones to thrive due to the improved infrastructure. Every city with a MAGLEV rail system will be a shining new light of economic activity in our country. And the fact that every city will be interconnected together via this new rail system will enable suburbs and rural areas to prosper as well.”

“The secondary benefit is that this new public transportation infrastructure will dramatically reduce our dependency on automobiles and foreign oil. As a result, every citizen of this great country will save money and time. No longer will we have to pay billions of dollars to foreign oil producing countries. And no longer will we have to suffer with grid lock on our nation’s highways. Moreover, and most importantly, we will have cleaner air and water due to dramatically lower carbon emissions in our country. Again, we will be a shining example to the rest of the world on what can be done when a country’s people are willing to invest in itself for the long haul.”

“So I close tonight asking for your support of our new vision and plans for the country. If you can rise up and let your voice be heard in support of this great cause, you will do your part in turning this country’s economy around and making our planet a healthier place to live. I urge you to call your congressmen and women and tell them to support the “Transportation Movement Act”. With your congressional member’s support we can get this plan passed in Congress and onto my desk so that I can sign it into law soon. With your help and my final signature, we can then take the next step in moving forward and restoring our country and this planet to its glory years. Thank you, good night, and God Bless.”

After the television camera’s red light went off, the President’s staff erupted in applause and cheers as he stood up from the desk where he was seated. In their self-serving opinions the President had just made a wonderful pitch for the Transportation Movement Act that would surely enable it to receive the necessary votes in Congress for passage. And most importantly, ensuring their positions of continued power and lifestyle.

“Fabulous job Mr. President,” said the Chief of Staff as he came up to the President and gave him a fist pump. “You knocked it out of the park tonight with that speech. I guarantee you your supporters are thrilled with it and will be gushing in the papers, online, and on television broadcasts about it all night, and for the next several weeks until we get this plan passed.”

“Thank you,” responded the President in a wide grin. He too felt like he hit a home run tonight. The message was clear, the cadence was perfect, and the tone was uplifting.

As the President started to leave the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room to go back to his private quarters he saw a familiar face come up on one of the television monitors.