Kicking the Can (3 page)

President Cannon pulled up his calendar and scanned the entries.

“Are you set for the G-20 Summit?”

“The finance minister of China wants to meet with me privately. He said it was an opportunity to become acquainted and to understand the priorities of your administration. We’ll see what he really wants.”

7

C
hief of Staff Suzanne Bass sat across from Glenn Woodall, former President Jackson’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. His days were numbered. He was a generous man physically—accountant’s spread was what they called it—the result of years at a desk, and gravity. His chair creaked and cracked as he shifted his weight.

“Federal government’s always been on the cash basis method of accounting…Revenues are recognized when collected, and expenses are recognized when paid,” Woodall said. “That’s how governmental accounting works.”

“And its served Congress well distorting the truth by hiding reckless entitlement spending,” Bass thundered. “Ever hear of ‘what gets measured gets managed’?”

“Peter Drucker, right?” Sebastian liked Bass, the new chief of staff, the moment they were introduced. An all-American forward for Northwestern before she blew out her knee, Bass was aggressive, didn’t hesitate to mix it up—everything jump ball. Her statement was directed at Woodall. At six feet two, sturdily built, she intimidated men. She had a distinguishing mole above her lip and auburn hair, cropped short.

“Our government is not truthful with Americans. Politicos are masters at deceiving the public,” Bass said.

“OMB directors before me reported this way. It’s the same with other countries,” Woodall replied.

Bass removed the working papers from her leather audit bag.

“OMB tracks the receipts and expenditures of the federal government,” Bass continued. “This past fiscal year OMB reported the government spent one point zero two trillion dollars more than it took in. There have only been four years in recent history where it had a budget surplus: 1998-2001. The cumulative total of US budget deficits, what we label as public debt, now stands at twenty-two trillion. The United States also owes forty-four trillion in unfunded entitlement promises—but you’d have to look at page two hundred twenty-eight of the Trustees’ report to find that information.” Bass looked up to see if everybody was still in tow.

“The US government has a negative net worth of sixty-two trillion, if you add the two numbers together and subtract financial assets. The good news is we don’t need to repay the debt,” Bass said. “All we need is a plan to move the country to a balanced budget. I’ve copied and bound this material for you.”

“Well done, Bass.”

“Thank you, Mr. President.”

Woodall stood, pushing his chair from the conference table, the meeting adjourned. He handed President Cannon his resignation letter.

8

C
hris Drummond stood outside the corner office of his direct supervisor, Brian McFarland, managing partner of Anderson Consulting’s Northwest Region. McFarland waved him in.

“Sit down. The consulting business has been crazy…We haven’t had many opportunities to visit. I’m glad you requested this appointment.”

“How’s Susan doing?”

“Do you mean Sarah? My daughter’s name is Sarah.”

“Yes, Sarah. Is she still at Bellingham?”

“No, she withdrew seven weeks ago.”

“Sorry to hear that. Many young people today find it difficult to focus on course work if they don’t know their career aspirations. Taking a couple semesters off can help refocus.”

“Not Sarah’s situation; she’s a 4.0 point student—political science. She has cystic fibrosis, a progressive disease. She’s had to be on intravenous antibiotics, and they’ve recommended she go on the organ transplant list.”

“I wasn’t aware…Anything the firm can do for you and your family?”

“Yes. That’s why I made the appointment. I want to transfer to governmental. I’ll finish my master’s degree in health care administration this spring. I enjoy research and policy. I’d prefer a career in public health.”

“How long have you been in industry?”

“Three and a half years. I was fifteen years with Mayhem, McKinley, and Cross, the last five in their health care department before Anderson bought the firm.

“You did your internship with Mercy Hospital Systems?”

“Correct, through the Academic Development Partnership.”

“Mercy’s been buying significant numbers of physician practices, and the transaction volume is accelerating.”

“True—ninety percent of my client billings are charged to Mercy.”

“Drummond, you’ve earned a solid reputation specializing in acquisition and integration of physician practices. I pulled your production stats. Year to date you’re at one hundred twenty-eight percent of your billable-hours target…Puts you among the top three managers on the West Coast. If you keep that up, you’ll make associate principal in a couple years. We’re in the third inning in the physician acquisition game. The demand for your area of expertise looks robust for the foreseeable future. Why give that up?”

“We all need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Scheming with hospitals and physicians to maximize profits when the US health system is on a ventilator strikes me as absurd. It reminds me of the real
estate bubble, except it’s now health care. Guess I’m tired of living a lie.”

“Holier than thou—is that it?”

Drummond looked at McFarland and saw disdain on his face. His words didn’t come out the way he had rehearsed. He wanted to start over, but it was too late.

“I’m less familiar with governmental, but my understanding is the slots we have in public health are filled by PhDs. Many work part time as adjunct faculty doing research. Anderson handles this work out of the East Coast. There are very few positions West.”

McFarland interrupted their meeting to respond to an e-mail. He pounded out a response on the keyboard and then picked up the phone to yell instructions at his administrative assistant.

“I’m not trying to discourage you, but it’s a long shot unless you’re willing to relocate. I’m not sure a master’s degree is enough. If you do decide to submit a formal request and application through Career Development, please let me know. I’d hate to lose you. The firm needs skilled people in your area of expertise.”

9

T
reasury Secretary John Sebastian was seated at the table in the family residence dining room. President Cannon strolled over to the fireplace and stood with his back against the crackling fire, warming himself.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Caesar salad, meat loaf, scalloped potatoes, green beans, fruit cocktail, and apple pie for dessert,” Sebastian said. President Cannon came to the table, and Sebastian said grace.

“This year’s theme of the G-20 Summit was ‘sovereign debt,’” Sebastian said. “My indoctrination as the new secretary was a bit chilly, and I’m not talking about the weather…The temperature never climbed above freezing the entire time I was in St. Petersburg.”

There was something comforting about sitting down to a quiet dinner of meat loaf and apple pie with the president of the United States in the White House residence. The fact that he and President Cannon would be billed for the meal made it even more satisfying. Sebastian opened a legal file to begin his briefing.

“I had two closed-door meetings with Deng Hongwei, China’s minister of finance. He indicated China has put us on a debt watch. For the United States to save face,
China has graciously withheld this fact from other G-20 nations…Those were his exact words. He proceeded to describe the consequences if we ignore his warning. China could sell off its US treasuries, which could induce other foreign investors to sell, destabilizing the US economy by collapsing the dollar relative to other currencies, causing inflation and interest rates to spike. None of these talking points came as a surprise,” Sebastian said. “I acknowledged his statements and thanked him for communicating their concerns. I reminded him China’s economic growth is dependent upon a stable US economy.” Sebastian finished his salad.

“I asked Hongwei what the Chinese are doing about their real estate bubble. He said they’re working toward expanding investment opportunities for Chinese citizens overseas, but it’s been slow to develop because of interagency conflicts. The Chinese have health care challenges too. The country recently extended basic health insurance to ninety-five percent of the population, causing serious strains on their delivery system.

“We agreed to open communications between the two countries. I scored the diplomatic jousting, China one, USA one.”

10

P
resident Cannon looked at his wristwatch: 1:10 a.m., Tuesday, no Wednesday morning. He flexed his muscles, extending his legs underneath the wooden table, pushing his arms high overhead to stretch, the action necessary to reconnect his body and brain after having been dormant, like a computer in sleep mode, for several hours. For two nights in a row, he had held vigil in the White House library searching for the answer to his question—
does democracy work in a crisis situation?
The founding fathers put Americans first, Whigs and Tories second. A polarized Washington was placing the country in jeopardy. Cannon needed a game plan. His quest began with a simple idea—what clues taken from historical periods of urgent national need could past presidents offer Cannon to solve the crisis now faced by the United States?

The first words he scribbled on his yellow legal pad had been from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of 1863: “
and government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth
.” Cannon circled each three-word set—of the people—by the people—and for the people. Circling the words allowed him to visually dissect the statement into three concepts. In the process, Cannon
confirmed his greatest fear was not that the United States would fail to uncover a solution to the health care crisis, but that the mechanics of the process, “a government by the people,” were inherently political.

Cannon’s second data point came ninety-eight years later when he underlined a copy of the transcript President John F. Kennedy delivered in a special message to Congress on urgent national needs. JFK, facing escalating threats of a Soviet confrontation, successfully promoted his decision to go to the moon by framing it as a technological and intellectual challenge to Americans.

The final data point came an hour ago, when he read a blurb in the archives regarding the Wolfson Economic Prize, a contest to elicit proposals of how best to dismantle the Eurozone. The contest was initiated and administered by a prominent British businessman. A panel of university professors picked the winner. He was intrigued by the idea of an intellectual contest. Cannon learned Nobel Prizes were awarded annually in peace, medicine, literature, and economics; and a lesser known Nobel Memorial Prize was awarded in economic sciences. His idea solidified: if Cannon could bypass Congress and go directly to the people, challenging them to an intellectual contest to fix health care, he might be able to usurp the partisanship of the legislative process and impose the will of the people on Congress. What wasn’t clear—who would administer the contest.

11

H
ouse Speaker Bennett and Representative Haines stood. President Cannon was the last to enter the Roosevelt Room. They retook their seats across from Sebastian.

“Thank you for holding the press conference,” President Cannon began. “It heightened the awareness among the citizens of this country of just how perilous our financial situation has become. Perhaps next time we can hold a joint press conference?”

“Perhaps,” Bennett said with a sneer. “I felt it was my patriotic duty.”

“I can’t imagine the anguish Jackson must have felt withholding vital information from the electorate. Were you able to speak with him before the press release, or do they have visitation restrictions at Lee Federal Penitentiary?”

Bennett furled his forehead but said nothing.

“The urgency of our nation’s financial situation warrants a State of the Union address.”

“What do you hope to accomplish?” Bennett quipped.

“I intend to tell the citizens of these United States that unless we act, the fate of this great nation is in jeopardy. The root cause of our deficit spending is health
care entitlements. The system must be revamped—that’s the message.”

“What do you intend to do once you’ve stirred up the American people?”

“In 1961 JFK
challenged
Congress and America to put a man on the moon within the decade and succeeded. I intend to announce my own challenge—fix health care by engaging Congress and America to uncover policy solutions to resolve the entitlement mess and balance the federal budget. The challenge will unite this country to solve our gravest threat, something Congress has been unable, or unwilling, to do.”

“Mr. President, you forgot how the legislative process works. A member from the House or Senate must introduce a bill. Our party has already identified the substantive legislation for this session,” Bennett said. Turning his eyes to Sebastian, he crossed his arms in indignation. “What kind of advice are you giving him, Sebastian? I expected more from you.”

The room fell silent. Haines leaned over and whispered to Bennett; both men emerged from the confab grinning.

“Mr. President…pound sand!” Bennett said.

“Is that your message to America?” Cannon asked. He pushed his chair away from the table and stood, signaling the meeting was over.

12

J
ason Mitchell was an unflappable journalist, selected as Cannon’s press secretary because of his reputation for integrity and his knowledge of social media. A campaign to raise the financial literacy in the country would require unorthodox communication: social media was a platform they would exploit—which was Mitchell’s bailiwick.