American Reset (The Economic Collapse Chronicles)

by Mark Goodwin

  Paul Randall said, “Then the Tenth Amendment would read ‘The ‘express’ powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.’ Is that what you’re proposing?”

  Jacobs said, “That’s right. That would put strict limitations on the Federal Government. They would only be allowed to act in the powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution. There would be no more ‘implied powers’ for the Federal Government.”

  South Carolina Governor Hayden said, “I’ll second that motion.”

  Everyone voiced their support of adding the word to the Tenth Amendment. It was now well after one o’clock.

  Paul Randall said, “Gentlemen, it looks like we could go on and on, but we need to take lunch. We’ll reconvene in one hour and try to get through as many of the remaining amendments as possible today.”

  The men approved of the timing and broke for lunch.

  CHAPTER 22

  “The peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self-defense. The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside.”

  -Thomas Paine

  Justin woke to his wife gently nudging him.

  “Time to wake up,” Rene said.

  Justin joked, “Am I late for school?”

  Rene smacked him with a pillow. “No, but it’s afternoon already. What time did you get home from Adam’s?”

  “Late,” he replied.

  She asked, “Did you come up with a plan?”

  Justin answered, “Adam is going to finalize it with Gary, but the rough idea is that we’ll cut down a tree in the road right before they bring the prisoners back from the mine. When the guards get out of the bus, we’ll snipe them off from the trees.”

  Rene whispered so Karen wouldn’t hear her. “What if the guards decide to execute the prisoners?”

  He answered, “They can shoot the prisoners or try to defend themselves against the attack. They can’t do both. I’m counting on their good sense of self-preservation.”

  “Who’s going on the raid?” Rene inquired.

  Justin replied, “Not you, if that’s what you’re hinting at.”

  “Why not?” she demanded.

  Justin shook his head. “You’ve seen enough action this week. I don’t want you getting PTSD.”

  “Because I’m a girl?” she asked.

  Justin knew better than to get into this argument. “Did you already eat breakfast?”

  “We’ve already had lunch,” she said. “Don’t change the subject. I’ve proven I can function under stress. Karen and I took on two armed men in the house. I went on the recon mission with you, so I know the area.”

  Justin said, “I need you to watch out for Karen while we’re gone.”

  “You’re just trying to push me to the side. Make your own breakfast…and lunch.” Rene slammed the door as she left the room.

  Justin stretched and rolled out of bed. He had been running on very little sleep for several days. It felt good to get caught up. His muscles were stiff from sleeping so long. He stretched a little more and got dressed. He made his way to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. He put a scoop and a quarter of coffee into the French press. Normally, he would have put two big scoops, but coffee was rationed. Matt and Karen had brought several pounds when they moved up from Florida. Adam bought an entire pallet of coffee before the crash. Even though they had a substantial amount, it was a valuable barter item in addition to being available for their personal use.

  Karen was preparing several containers of food to take to the power plant. “I left a pan of beans and rice for you on the stove for whenever you’re ready to eat it. Rene and I will be back in a couple of hours.”

  “Thanks,” Justin said. “Be sure to take your rifles and a side arm.”

  “We will,” Karen said as she carted a load of food to the truck.

  The girls left and Rene didn’t bother to say good-bye. Justin knew she’d be over it by the time she got home, so he didn’t let it bother him. Justin unloaded his pack and cleaned up everything that was dirty. He replaced the items he used up on the recon mission and began loading it for the rescue mission. He cleaned his weapon and oiled it thoroughly. He replaced several of the magazines he had removed for the recon mission. His pack had been more for food and sustaining him for several days rather than ammunition on the recon trip. The rescue mission would be much shorter and a firefight was inevitable. He adjusted his gear accordingly.

  Once finished with loading his gear for the next mission, Justin considered going out to check the garden and animals. He was just too tired, so he sat down on the couch and listened to the news radio station out of Lexington for a while. There was a complete media blackout in many of the worst cities around America, but a refugee who had made it from New York City to Kentucky was giving an account of the conditions in New York and of his trip to his daughter’s house in Kentucky. Justin adjusted the antenna to get the best reception and turned the volume up slightly.

  The man on the radio spoke with a heavy New York accent, “New York is a mad house. I’ve never seen anything like it. There are no police, no emergency services, no hospitals, no food and no sanitation. It’s like nothing you could imagine. Death, everywhere you look, it’s death. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  The reporter asked him, “Is it like 9/11 or is it like a third-world country?”

  “None of that,” the man responded. “This is so much worse than 9/11 or anything you’ve ever seen on television. There is human waste all over the streets. People are dying of starvation, the city is riddled with disease. People are walking around with huge boils on their faces and arms. People have nowhere to put their dead. They just drag their dead family members out in the street and leave them there.”

  “And they just decay in the street?” the reporter asked.

  “No,” the man’s voice cracked. “People come take the bodies…because they ain’t got nothin’ else to eat.”

  “Oh…no!” the reporter’s voice sounded shocked. He sounded as if he might not be able to continue the interview.

  The reporter was silent for a moment, then finally asked, “Why are the people staying in the city?”

  He answered, “We kept hoping the government would come. We keep thinking that FEMA would be there with food, with water. But they never came. By the time we figured out they weren’t coming, most people were too weak to even leave. Most of them didn’t have anywhere to go and no way to get there even if they did. My wife and I decided to set out walking. We figured it would be better to die out in the wilderness than cooped up in the city. You can’t believe the smell in the city. The stench is so strong. It is physically painful to smell.

  “We started walking towards my daughter’s home down here in Kentucky. She lives here with her husband. We didn’t have a car. We always took taxis in New York. I had a good job when the crash came. I had money in the bank, a good portfolio and credit cards out the ear. None of that mattered after the crash. We did everything right and now I’ve got nothing to show for it. It’s all gone. All of it. My wife slipped in the mud one day while we were walking here. We were about halfway through Pennsylvania. She cut her arm on a rock. By the time we got to the southern border of Pennsylvania, her arm was really infected. She got real sick and died shortly thereafter. I stayed in the woods by her body for two days. I buried her with rocks near the place where she died. I feel so terrible that I couldn’t give her a proper funeral.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” the reporter commented. “You’ve been through a lot. A
re you alright to keep the interview going?”

  “I need to talk about it,” the man replied. “People need to know what’s going on out there also.”

  “What did you eat?” the reporter’s voice sounded hesitant, as if he were afraid of what the answer might be.

  “Some of the guys from the office had talked me into going duck hunting in upstate New York about a year ago. We only went one time, but I bought all of the stuff. I bought a single-shot 20 gauge shotgun and a few boxes of shells. If it hadn’t been for that shotgun, I’d have never made it. It provided security to get out of the city and once we made it out, I shot birds, squirrels, whatever I could find. I also ate acorns. I found some berries, but they made me sick for three days. That was after Linda died. I thought I was going to die too, but after three days, I started getting better. I kept drinking water to try to flush out the poison. I suppose it worked.”

  “That was a horrible experience. I’m glad you made it,” the reporter said.

  “It ain’t over yet,” the man replied. “It’s a lot better here, but things are still tough and we still got this war we gotta live through.”

  Justin switched off the radio. He’d turned it on in hopes of escaping for a moment. There would be no escape today. He heard Adam’s truck pull in the drive and went to the door to greet him. Shelly was in the truck with Adam.

  “Howdy,” Justin said.

  “Hey, man,” Adam replied. “Can you be ready at four o’clock in the morning?”

  “I’ll be ready,” Justin said.

  “We’re going to be a small team. Bring lots of ammo,” Adam said.

  Justin looked at Shelly and back at Adam as if to ask if he realized that she was standing there.

  Adam caught the look and said, “Shelly is going with us. She won’t take no for an answer. She’s a good shot.”

  Justin said, “Please don’t let Rene find out about this. I’ll never hear the end of it. She’s mad right now because I said she couldn’t go.”

  Shelly said, “I need this. I’m not trying to prove anything, but these people took my husband from me.”

  Justin said, “Revenge isn’t going to make you miss Wesley any less.”

  Shelly said, “It’s not revenge. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s resolve, but it’s not revenge.”

  Justin nodded. “Who else is coming?”

  Adam answered, “Gary and three guys from Manchester. I fought beside them at Joe’s. They’ve got some fire in their bellies, too. I think you’ll like them. They’re all three ex-military. Get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

  Justin said, “Yeah, I’m getting used to those.”

  Adam and Shelly pulled away and Justin went back in to double-check all of his gear. He put together a few things to eat. He packed some jerky and decided to make a pan of cornbread. “Matt and his buddies might be hungry. I better pack a little extra,” Justin said to himself. Once he was confident that everything was ready, Justin laid down on the couch. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. He had better get as much rest as possible.

  CHAPTER 23

  “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

  -Thomas Jefferson

  Paul Randall and the other men reconvened after lunch Monday afternoon.

  Randall opened the meeting. “I hope everyone enjoyed their lunch. We’re going to jump right back into the meeting, because we have a ton of material to cover. It is very unlikely that we’ll be able to even touch on all of our concerns today, so we’ll just focus on the main topics and revisit the details in subsequent forums. I’d like to focus on just three of amendments eleven through twenty-seven today.

  “I’ll start with the Fourteenth Amendment, because it is a small word change that I would like to propose and I hope we can all agree on it. I believe it would be a perfect place to ensure the personhood of the unborn. Currently, section one of the Fourteenth Amendment reads,

  ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’

  “I propose that we add the word ‘conceived.’ I know some of you have voiced concerns over the possibility of ‘citizenship tourism’ where immigrant hopefuls will visit America only to conceive a child that will give them a path to citizenship. I don’t think it will significantly increase the amount of people who are already using the amendment for this purpose by having their children born in America. And given the two evils, I would say murder of over a million unborn babies a year through abortion is certainly the more egregious.”

  Sonny spoke next, “So, just to clarify, the first sentence of section one would read, ‘All persons, conceived, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’”

  Paul affirmed, “That’s correct.”

  Schmidt of Wyoming said, “I’ll gladly second that motion.”

  The men discussed the proposal for roughly an hour. Some did have concerns over citizenship tourism, but those concerns were quickly put to rest. Each state would be allowed to enact and enforce its own immigration laws. With this solution, everyone eventually came around to Paul’s proposal.

  Paul said, “Another proposal I hope we can all agree on is repealing the Sixteenth Amendment. It was originally derived from the 1894 Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act which sought to impose a two percent tax on incomes above $4,000. If you equated that to the purchasing power of the dollar before it finally crashed, we would be talking about annual incomes over $150,000. Few people made that much money, so why not tax the rich? Little did they know, once the camel gets its nose under the tent, it will soon be in the tent and wreaking havoc. That two percent quickly grew to a top rate of thirty-nine and a half percent, not to mention Social Security, Medicare and capital gains taxes.

  “Many tax protestors have argued that the Amendment was never ratified or that there is no law requiring most Americans to file. Repealing this amendment and banning federal personal income tax will put this to rest once and for all.”

  Donald Barlow of South Dakota asked, “How do you propose the Federal Government to collect revenue to fulfill its constitutional obligations?”

  Randall said, “We managed to do that through tariffs all the way from the birth of our country until 1913. I don’t see why we couldn’t do it again. Especially now that the obligations of the Federal Government are going to be so restricted.”

  General Allen Jefferson spoke. “I’m not trying to sway your opinions one way or the other, but we will have a much smaller military than we have now. Tariffs are very limited in the amount of revenue that they can generate. If tariffs get too expensive, people will simply do without the product or find a way to produce it domestically. It may be nearly impossible to maintain a standing army. I know the Jeffersonians were against a standing army, but we do live in a different global landscape than they did.”

  Governor Shea of Montana stated, “We do live in a different world, but there are several very civilized countries, even now, that do not maintain a military that remotely resembles ours. Switzerland’s military is made up of only five percent professional soldiers and the rest is a militia. They mind their own business and have no need of a global dominating force. We have to remember, the main proponents of the income tax were, of course, the liberals who sought a method of wealth redistribution, but we also had the predecessors to the neo-conservatives: Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Republicans who wanted a global military. The neo-cons were every bit as responsible for the collapse of the doll
ar as the leftists.”

  Jefferson said, “I agree with your statement, Mark. I just want everyone to know what they are signing up for. I would recommend including a cap on tariffs to prevent their abuse as an income stream.”

  “Any thought on how you would structure the limits?” Randall asked.

  The General replied, “I haven’t really thought about it. Perhaps something like ten percent on items that could be produced domestically. That category would be things like computers, appliances and automobiles. It would make it tougher to import goods that take away American jobs. Maybe five percent on items that can’t be produced in sufficient quantities for American consumption. We can grow a few bananas in South Carolina and Texas, but even if we are able to incorporate Florida into the Coalition, it would probably never keep up with demand. I would reduce the tariff to one percent on things we simply can’t produce in any significant quantity. That would be things like coffee.”

  Randall said, “I think that is a very good recommendation. We’ll discuss tariff categories and maximum rates in depth at a later date. General, I know you are fighting a war right now, but would you consider being on a committee to explore the economic factors of tariffs? It sounds like you have a good understanding of how they could affect us.”

  Allen Jefferson replied, “I appreciate your offer, but I’ll have to decline at the present time. Why don’t you put Sonny on that? He’s as well versed in economics as any of us.”

  Paul said, “Great idea. Sonny, will you accept?”

  “I’d be honored,” Foster replied.

  Governor Schmidt of Wyoming said, “While we’re on the topic of taxation, I’d like to request that we ban property taxes on the state and federal levels. Property taxes create a sort of serfdom where you never really own your land. If you fail to pay your taxes, you are at risk of losing your home or land to the state. The effect is that you are little more than a renter of your own land.”