Settling here today watching a few football games between household chores and this little scene for my latest book Political Fools popped into my head. I thought I would write up the rough draft and post it here so you can look it over. Remember this is the rough draft. It was written over the last few hours during commercials and downtime of tonight’s football game, so it may have some rough spots that I will need to redo before actually adding it to my manuscript. Hope you enjoy it.

“Ok. I think we are all in agreement,” Senator Williston said to the assembled group of fellow senators and congressmen. “Dr. Landry’s study shows that if we manage this right, shutting down the government and starting over will benefit this great country of ours. We need to move forward with my plan.”

“Do you think we have the numbers?” Senator Moran asked. “I don’t think there is enough of us to do this right now. Shouldn’t we wait until our numbers are higher?”

“No. We don’t have the numbers to pass this right now. Remember, we don’t have to win in large numbers. We don’t have to replace the Republican candidate for president. All we have to do is get enough senators and congressmen on our side and we can push this through with some Republicans on our side.”

“So, why should be bring our agenda out now?” a congressman from Texas asked.

“We need the debate. We need to bring this in front of the public so we can build our base across American. We only have one year to get our candidates into the primaries. It won’t do any good to try to run our candidates and bring up Clean Slate during the primaries. We need to get it out and in the public’s mind before”

“How are we going to do this without shocking anyone and getting attacked?” Georgian Senator Wilmer asked.

“My assistant Paul has it all mapped out. He’s going to give you all detailed timelines for introducing Clean Slate. Basically, we drop the term in a conversation or interview here and there. Explain our views. We line up more and more economists and business leaders behind the theory. We have about two hundred of them now that will go along. Over time, the term becomes a bigger part of our speeches and interviews. A year from now, everyone will know what it is and then we announce the fifty candidates we have lined as well as ourselves as the Clean Slate party.”

Murmurs went up along the assembled group. Senator Williston gave them a few minutes to discuss his time table amongst themselves and when he heard the murmur quieting down, he continued. “Just so we are all on the same boat, the packet we are handing out has all the details you need to know about Clean Slate. Paul worked with Dr. Landry to come up with talking points, rebuttals, sound bites, and everything else you need to know to defend this plan.”

“Some of us are new to your little group,” Congressman Peters said. “Go over quickly what all Clean Slate entails and what this Dr. Landry has theorized.”

Senator Williston smiled and replied, “Sorry Bill, I had forgotten that you and Congressmen Smith, Anderson, and Jennings are new to our team. Dr. Landry has researched economic breakdowns over the course of human history. His research has lead him to believe that the current rate of spending and deficits by the U.S. Government is unsustainable. He believes that our spending combined with the debt and unfunded liabilities will crash our economy in the near future. I have reviewed his research and wholeheartedly believes in his conclusions. Several years ago, I started working with him to figure a way out of the mess. What we have come up with is the simple fact that if the economy is going to crash, why not crash it ourselves. Control the crash by having a plan to recover instead of being caught by surprise when it happens. Control the timing with a congress and senate that believes in a smaller government and less taxes.”

Senator Williston stopped for effect and let his words sink in. Even the people in the room who have heard this lecture before, still needed reinforcement from time to time. “What we need to do is build our numbers to the point that we control the agenda. When we can do that, we will refuse to pass the budget and stop the government. We default on our debt and lower taxes at that point to help us start over and the American business recover. We state at that time that we intend to wipe out all funding and start over with a clean slate. The budget we pass will be a fraction of the size and only include a very small portion of the current government.”

“And this is supposed to work and not bring everything down around our ears? What about the millions of people who will be out of work because of the reduced government?”

“There’s talking points on those topics in the folder. This is not going to come without some pain, but if we do it rather than having it happen by surprise, the fallout will be manageable. Read Dr. Landry’s paper and have your staff go over everything. You’ll come up with the same conclusions we have and be all the way onboard. This is the only way to get this great country out of the mess it’s in.”

Congressman Peters looked at the packet and then at Senator Williston, “Okay, Tom. I’ll give everything a go over and see what I how much I want to go in on this plan.”

“Thanks Bill,” Senator Williston said with a big smile on his face. He let the group talked amongst themselves while he bent down and whispered into Paul’s earl. “Make sure we put Bill and his group on a full-course press. He’s leaning to our side, but could blow the other way. Set up a meeting with Dr. Landry and include Bill’s group. We need to reel him in.”

“Will do. Make sure you mention that these packets cannot be made public. This all has to be keep secret until we are ready.”

“Good point. I’ll mention it in my closing remarks.”

Senator Williston, Senator Moran, Paul and a few others spent the rest of the evening making their way to other attendees of the dinner to talk privately about Clean Slate. Over the next few hours, Senator Williston had been able to convince all of the congressmen and senators in the room, including Congressman Peters, of the viability of Clean Slate. He was smiling and extremely happy by the time he and Paul found their way back in the limo to go back to his office.”

“You did a great job with those packets,” Senator Williston said to Paul as the limo pulled away. “A few more meetings like that and we’ll be able to pull off this whole thing.”

“Way to go with Congressman Peters. You had him drooling like a dog over the possibility of Clean Slate by the end of the night. After meeting with Dr. Landry, he’ll be one of our biggest cheerleaders.”

The two started laughing and the thought of Congressman Peters meeting with Dr. Landry. Little did anyone in the group knew that the whole thing had been Senator Williston’s theory. Dr. Landry only agreed to put his name to the research after a substantial offshore account had been set up in his name. It also helped that the title to a nice ocean-side resort in the South Pacific had been transferred to a company he now controlled. Dr. Landry didn’t want to ride out the after effects of Clean Slate anywhere near the United States.

Remember, what you see here may or may not make it into the book or it may be completely rewritten by then. Even so, leave me a comment if you like it or not.

Randy

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