Philosophy according to Jack
One Page Laws
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
I once read
an account of how former GE Chairman Jack Welch demanded one page memos.
At the
time, our farming operation was ranked among the bigger operations and I liked
staff meetings about like Mr. Welch so I instituted a similar process.
Communicate frequently and ongoing, but do it with simplicity. I don’t
recollect sending anything back if it exceeded the single page as Welch would
have done, but the point remains similar.
“If you
can’t get it on a single piece of paper … rewrite it.”
Furthermore,
“If it takes more than a single piece of paper, you don’t have a single point
but, rather, multiple points … break it down to the single point of emphasis.”
Maybe we
didn’t swing a loop quite as big as Mr. Welch’s, but we left an impression and
we ran a good business. After all these years, I would judge our leadership
approaches in lock step with his first six leadership secrets.
History does matter
The size
and rate of growth of our government is … ungovernable. With all the words and
gnashing of teeth, every representative that has been sent into the black hole
of Washington
must receive a failing grade in his or her success of halting the assault on our
treasury. Objective Americans who will be expected to capitalize resolution of
this pending cataclysm are being treated like subjects rather than the
sovereign citizens they are.
The
confusion is made worse by the jigsaw puzzle legislative actions that are being
bundled and cast to the cabinet level secretaries for regulatory authorship and
implementation. By their shear size, they are untenable, but when the politics
of the managing agency is morphed into the administrative process, they become
weapons against the citizenry. They are debacles, and they are an insult to our
foundation.
The
discovery of the size of the staff in the original Congress makes all this more
indefensible. There were nine employees, and four of them were chaplains.
There is no
way that the Affordable Health Care Act would be the paper giant it is if the
Congressmen and Senators elected to represent the folks had to pen the document
themselves. In the framework of the original Congress, they would have done
that very thing. The permanent record would have been rendered to a recording
secretary, but the genesis of the bill would have come from the mind … and the
pen of the originator.
Staff … the sound of that word should make every one of us shudder. It has become a matter of automatic recourse for city councils, county commissions, state legislators,
and, of course, congressional representatives.
“We will
refer the matter to staff,” is the mirrored byline.
That
interpretation is straight forward. The grunt work will be parlayed away and
the elected kahunas will make the learned decisions. Well, it is time to fire
the staffs and demand the self aggrandized kahunas earn their golden
parachutes. It is time to seek constitutional commitments to the nation and
that starts with statesmanship and courage. It must proceed by acting the part
of the trusted representative of the sovereign citizens who cast their votes
for ethical representation.
The procedure
for legislative action must also be altered. Multiple thousand page bills are unacceptable.
They are shameful. They are not the products of competent elected officials. They
are complicit wish lists. They are the creation of political parties and
special interests that maneuver and conspire with staff to assemble and
construct monstrosities of civic molestation. They are being driven purposely
to levels of confusion and complexity.
One page, public servants
A
suggestion was once made to a key aid of the chairman of an important natural
resource committee by this parched lipped westerner that federal laws should be
no more than one page in length. That fellow, who will read this, offered a
gracious response, but he and I both know the real truth of his reaction. He
had to hold his teeth in and gain control of his breathing before he squared
himself and gave his best rendition of cordiality.
“Impossible” was his abbreviated
answer.
The matter,
though, is foundationally impaired. Laws must be considered with constitutional
unity, reduced to simplicity, and transcribed in a clear and concise manner.
The human interpretation will confuse the issue enough for debate.
Federal
laws should be reduced to one page.
They should be written in a manner
that any citizen can understand, and they should be authored by the elected
servants who pledged to defend that Constitution upon receiving that majority
vote from the folks back home.
Pretty simple isn’t it?
An example is the Copyright Act of
1790. It remains an important piece of legislation. It was approved for
presidential signature on May
31, 1790. Printed on today’s electronic equipment, it is nearly two
pages in length. After reading it, Jack Welch would have rejected and sent it
back to the sender on the basis of confusion. I would have pondered it,
similarly.
“Write it again.”
An example of confusion is the
continued repetition of what it is protecting, “maps, charts, books, or books
already made and composed”. After the first reference, it should have been
tagged henceforth as “protected subjects”.
The Constitution provides adequate authority
to police such action. If it exceeds a single page, the president should refuse
to sign it. Upon three iterations of attempting to sign, and it still does not
meet standards, the bill should be scrapped. It was not assembled with adequate
simplicity.
Reversing tyranny
What the Constitution didn’t
delegate to the federal government is the
business of the states and the people. The Tenth Amendment gave us that
authority. If the states want cumbersome laws to fight in court, even two pages
long, it is the prerogative of the folks managing the course of state actions
to make such determinations.
The point remains the same. If the
complexity of laws is so great page after page of details are necessary, they
exceed the reasonableness of simplicity and shouldn’t be undertaken by elected
servants. Complexity should be reserved for the sovereign citizen. It is there
the genius of the individual overcomes the complexity of issues.
The Bible presents the most
brilliant example. At issue are the Ten Commandments. When Moses came off the
mountain with the single page tablet inscribed with the commandments, GOD
considered his actions. In his infinite wisdom, HE sent word back to angelic
staff.
“Rewrite it,” HE commanded.
The large font, one page directive
came back as two sentences. The words were:
“Love
the Lord your GOD with all your heart and with all you soul and with all your
mind, and … Love your neighbor as yourself”.
The point is abundantly clear. If
it is good enough for GOD … it is more
than good for those who think they are.
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New
Mexico. “In addition to simplified legislation, Washington staff must be
reduced to only those individuals who report to the highest ranking aid to the
respective elected officials.”