Chapter 8

Jane said, “I think President Taylor was the first President who really understood the true power of his office.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked.

Jane answered, “He understood his role was to manage the various federal government agencies. Congress might pass laws and allocate moneys, but it is up to the president to see the laws are followed and the budgets are adhered to.”

“I understand that,” Jack said.

Jane continued, “President Taylor realized he didn’t have to spend the money budgeted to him. He didn’t have to staff various departments to sufficient levels to effectively follow the law. He didn’t cut the budget he denied spending the money. He could add and remove regulations. It was a very effective tactic.

“The budget for the Department of Education was over 100 billion dollars during his second year in office. He devastated the department by firing over ninety percent of the employees. Staffing dropped from nearly six thousand to only six hundred. He cut so many programs, that only a couple billion dollars were spent that year.

“He did the same thing to just about every agency and department of the federal government. Some of the really minor agencies were left with a single person who served as a figurehead with no real responsibilities. It was a slash and burn approach to saving money. His actions alone increased the unemployment rate by two percentage points.

“These actions were done after the great purge of ‘traitors.’ Most government agencies were already in serious trouble, because of a lack of leadership. There were barely enough people left to call what followed a reorganization. Agencies were eliminated or merged to reduce the total number of government agencies by half.

“One of the actions that had long term repercussions was striking regulations from the law books left and right. It took several years for anyone to catch up on what had been removed. Even ten years later, people would discover they had been filing papers, reports, and following procedures that had been struck down during that time period.”

“That sounds pretty good to me,” Jack said.

“You don’t know how many people his actions affected. Thousands of college students lost the funds they needed to make it possible for them to get a decent education. Thousands of families who had been living in public housing were left homeless. Thousands of people who were ill, emotionally weak, or physically feeble were denied basic services. It was estimated that close to ten million people were negatively affected by his actions. As many as fifty thousand died early deaths because of him. Promising lines of research were killed.

“He destroyed the social infrastructure built over the previous sixty years. Social programs put in place by FDR disappeared overnight. The Great Society envisioned by President Johnson was killed in a single year. The country became a much more brutal place.

“Rather than spending money on the intended programs, he spent the money on investigating past recipients of money for fraud. Tens of thousands of people were jailed for skimming money, taking kickbacks, and using their position for personal financial gain. Companies, some of which were very large, were put out of business. Community organizations were stripped bare and people were arrested.”

Jack said, “It sounds to me like he took names and kicked ass.”

Frustrated, Jane said, “While all of those investigations were taking place, the people who needed the money were getting nothing. Those people really suffered.”

“I’m sure it was tough,” Jack said.

“How would you feel if your mother died because an experimental treatment was suspended for a year?” Jane asked.

“I never knew my mother,” Jack answered.

“You’re impossible!”

Jack rolled up his right sleeve and held out his forearm showing a tattoo of an eleven digit number.

“That is my real identity. It was put on me right after my birth. Somewhere there is a record of who my mother was, but she never saw me, and I was never told anything about her. I do know that she has a similar tattoo on her arm just like everyone else in my timeline. That is the reality under which I was born and raised,” he said.

The tattoo identified him as a person in much the same way as a social security number. In addition, it conveyed genetic and social history based on the race of the parents, religious background, and socio-economic demographics. He had been fortunate one of his parents had been a third-generation atheist. He didn’t have to live under the disadvantage of having had religious parents and grandparents on both sides of his family. Although children were raised in a secular environment, they still had to pay for the sins of parents who were religious, rich, or politically active in a conservative sense.

Jane said, “I can’t speak to that.”

“No, you can’t,” Jack replied looking down at his tattoo.

The initial law had called for electronic devices to be placed under the skin. The practice had lasted for about a decade, but several problems emerged. Some people had them removed. Some people had figured out how to reprogram them so that when scanned, the devices reported they were the president. The end came when it was decided the program was just too expensive. Tattoos were cheap and nearly impossible to remove.

Jane said, “President Taylor cut out all special programs for minorities and disadvantaged people. Affirmative action, Equal Opportunity, and set-asides for minority-owned businesses came to an abrupt end. Thousands of minority-owned businesses collapsed. Families that had once been heading out of poverty were suddenly thrust back into it. When you couple his actions with the previous attack on undocumented workers from south of the border, he gave the appearance of a White Supremacist.”

“Are you trying to tell me that equal treatment under the law is racist?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Jane said.

Jack asked, “Why?”

Jane answered, “Because they had been denied equal treatment under the law for generations.”

“And then for generations they had been given special treatment under the law,” Jack countered.

“And it takes generations to achieve equality,” Jane retorted.

“When does it end?” Jack asked.

“When they’ve achieved equality,” Jane said.

“Who determines when equality has been achieved?” Jack asked.

Jane answered, “The government.”

Jack nearly doubled over in laughter. It took him a full minute to recover. By the time he settled down, tears were running down his cheeks.

He said, “In 2068, everyone made basically the same wage but that didn’t stop special treatment. The descendants of oppressed classes were given special consideration in what jobs they were assigned. The laws of this time don’t have any exit conditions for them.”

“You just don’t understand. The poverty plaguing the lives of minorities is real,” Jane said tugging at her restraints.

“If fifty years isn’t enough time, when is enough?” Jack asked leaning forward. “How long will it take?”

Jane shouted, “However long it takes!”

“Wrong answer!”