“Lottery systems have traditionally raised a lot of money for the states; I see no reason why the federal government should not leverage this as well. Once the debt has been paid down, then I propose the funds be transferred to the Social Security fund. We could finally fix the solvency issue and protect our seniors for generations to come.”
Jeff sat there for a second, thinking to himself before responding, “I do not see why we couldn’t establish something like this. We can create a subsidiary company under AFC to manage and handle the system. I’ll start to discuss it with my team and get back to you during our next meeting on the feasibility of it,” he said as he made a few notes on his tablet.
The President smiled and knew if Jeff thought it was a viable option, he would not exude praise until his team had examined the idea first. “Excellent, Jeff. This next idea is an idea I thought should have been enacted decades ago; it’s a radical approach but something that will in time help to stabilize global food levels. I would like to propose the development of a Grain Consortium.”
Stein linked his tablet to the interactive holographic projector on the ceiling of the room. Instantly, a floating image of the world displayed. The President began to highlight specific countries and then turned to face his advisors. “The oil producing countries have OPEC…I do not see why the large food producing countries of the world cannot form a Grain Consortium to both stabilize the price of commodities and also ensure enough food is being produced to feed the world. These countries represent our greatest potential for membership in the Consortium.”
Jeff sat back in his chair and stared at the map as it floated in a circle just above the center of the table. He was thinking about what the President had just said. “I do not see why we could not look into this; however, the trick is making it work. That will be the hard part. First, we have to get enough of the large food producing countries to participate in the Consortium, and then we need everyone to stick to the prices and food production quotas. It would definitely be hard to enforce.”
Grabbing a pen and writing some notes in her notepad, Katelyn Smith, the President’s senior trade advisor, asserted, “At a minimum, we need to get Canada, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia to be a part of the Consortium if it is going to be effective. We will also need to stop producing corn ethanol entirely and ensure our farmers are running their farms at full production. No more subsidies to farmers who do not grow and sell crops.”
Katelyn Smith had been a commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for several decades before she started her own financial firm. When it came to international trade, particularly in the area of commodities, she knew her stuff. The President had chosen her to be his senior trade advisor because she was sharp, honest and direct — qualities he respected. He knew he needed help to turn the economy around.
Jeff interjected, “Another point for consideration is that each country will need to establish a central entity (whether it’s a corporation or some other entity) that will coordinate the purchasing and sales of all national food products.”
Katelyn nodded towards Jeff, then continued, “Another caveat we would need to place in this plan is that local farmers will need to have a choice in selling their products to local grocery stores and communities or to the government entity. We do not want this to appear like the government taking control of food production, because we are not. As long as we include this qualification, I believe this Consortium could work — it will take a lot of coordination and some patience, but I believe we can do it. If you would like, my staff can start to develop the outline for this Consortium and we can start the dialog with our potential partners.”
“All right, then please have your staffs start work on this immediately and let’s see how fast we can get this moving,” the President said, satisfied that this idea had some merit and could potentially work.
Looking at his watch, the President saw they were running behind schedule. “Let’s talk about the infrastructure projects, Jeff. Where do we stand with them?” Jeff tapped away on his tablet and the holographic map began to show new data and information represented on each state. He began to pull several states forward to discuss them in more detail. “As you can see, we have 497 bridge projects, 2,667 highway projects and 3,422 high speed rail projects underway. All of the agreed upon projects (including bridge, highway and high speed rail projects) in the 2037 Infrastructure Plan are on track.”
Switching to a new image on the map, he continued, “The nation’s power grid upgrade and security improvement effort is moving forward. The Department of Energy is working with the various utility companies on hardening specific critical power nodes against EMP and cybersecurity threats. DHS and DOE are also stocking up on transformers and other critical components needed to repair and maintain the various critical nodes should something happen to the supply system,” Jeff said.
“Good. This will fold in nicely with 2040 National Defense Authorization and Recovery Act. This country has been wholly unprepared to deal with any major catastrophes,” the President responded.
“This has been a major focus of the National Recovery Working Group, Mr. President. We are scheduled to have a meeting with them next Thursday; I suggest we wait to discuss this further with them,” said Monty as he adjusted his reading glasses.
“I agree, Monty. Thank you for keeping us on track. Before we move on — Jeff, I want to make sure that we are diversifying the equipment used in these upgrades. Pay particular concern to products that are built by Chinese firms or subsidiaries. I do not want our power grid exposed because we used the same product in every facet.”
“I agree, Mr. President, and I will personally make sure that is being looked at,” said Jeff as he annotated a few items on the map.
Running short on time, the President jumped to the next section of the brief. “How is our manufacturing renaissance going?”
Jeff nodded towards his counterpart. “Katelyn can provide input into the trade aspect, but things are starting to improve a lot. The corporate tax and tariffs have helped with reshoring a lot of manufacturing; with the steady reduction in energy costs and a large supply of labor, it has made America a very attractive place to set up new manufacturing.”
Katelyn broke in, “—We have also increased tariffs on competing manufactured products coming from abroad (with special interests towards products from China). We have spent the last two years reviewing the various trade policies and agreements currently in place. A lot of these deals were initially poorly negotiated, which led to our enormous trade deficit. We have since modified these agreements or terminated them. We have effectively evened the playing field for American manufacturers, which has encouraged a lot of them to re-shore a majority of their overseas plants,” Katelyn said as she used her tablet to display the latest trade levels on the holograph.
“The Chinese, of course, are not happy about the tariffs, but the alternative is that they lose their ability to sell their goods to the American market.”
The President smiled at this, “My entire life, the Chinese have taken advantage of my country. Now it’s time to take advantage of them,” he thought.
“Good work Katelyn, I’m all for free trade, but it must be fair trade,” said the President. “Let’s continue to work on this Grain Consortium initiative and ensure our trade agreements are strictly fair trade going forward.”