How to be a great POTUS

Bulldog Washington reporter DAVID CORN unearths the White House's latest thoughts on getting POTUS (that's President of the United States for civilians) into the history books.

By David Corn

Jun 17, 1997 |

To: Erskine Bowles, White House Chief of Staff


From: Domestic Policy Council
Re:The Great Things Project

in January, POTUS said: "Great presidents don't do great things. Great presidents get a lot of other people to do great things." As you know, we have adopted that as our working motto. (We still stand by our suggestion that the phrase "Getting you to do great things" be added to the presidential stationery.) The volunteerism conference in Philadelphia was a success -- despite the almost instant reappearance of graffiti on inner city walls -- but we believe we must push forward. Consequently, we have come up with several "great things" initiatives that we propose POTUS act on immediately. Apart from the public approbation we feel sure POTUS will receive, the strategy minimizes any potential political downside: The initiatives cost the Treasury nothing. They require no legislation. They do not offend any political constituency. Nor do they threaten any special interests.

Build Your Own School It is estimated that $500 billion is needed to repair the nation's schools. POTUS should call on schoolchildren across the country to rebuild their own schools. After all, don't they still teach shop? Principals could even provide class credit for time spent repairing schools. (Suggested supplementary reading: "Self Reliance," by Henry Thoreau.)

Clothes Do Make the Man At the volunteer conference, we noticed that many corporations that support volunteerism provide employees with T-shirts that bear such slogans as "AT&T Cares." That gave us an idea. When corporations fire workers, they should provide them with a new suit of clothes. This will help those who are dismissed go on job interviews. Labor Department studies show that when someone wears new clothes, he or she has an enhanced sense of confidence. So, by providing downsized employees with a new suit, corporations can help them find a new job. Mandatory clothing retrofitting is unlikely to pass Congress. Instead, the president should use the bully pulpit to persuade corporate America to provide job-interview-friendly clothing to the downsized.

Pro Bono Life Saving While it may not have been apparent during the debates over health-care reform, many doctors are civic-minded. POTUS should call on them to offer one free medical treatment a week to an individual who could not afford it. A psychiatrist would provide a free hour of counseling to a suicidal patient. A kidney transplant specialist would perform one free operation -- on a child of course -- who has been waiting for a new organ. In a related move, POTUS should press drug companies to donate recently expired drugs to financially troubled hospitals and moderate-income citizens. According to FDA records, when most drugs expire, their potency is still above 95 percent. Our thinking: Isn't it better to give someone a drug working at 95 percent than nothing at all?

We Can All Get Along POTUS wants to "heal the breech." Part of the racial problem in this country (according to Vernon Jordan) is that white people and black people rarely socialize together. They do not know one another. To address this, POTUS should propose a tax credit for inter-racial socializing. If you go out for dinner, go to the movies or go bowling with someone of a different race, you can deduct 50 percent of the money spent on the activity. We see this as a social policy equivalent of High Occupancy Vehicle "diamond" lanes. OMB estimates the cost, assuming we exclude spectator sports like basketball, will be less than a $1.5 billion over five years.

Sharing the Shelter Roughly 10 million Americans are on welfare. Another 10 million Americans have more than one home. The math is undeniable. POTUS should call on multiple-home owners to open up their vacation houses to the less well-off on a sort of time-share basis. This can be promoted as a cultural exchange between income-variated Americans. (One proposed name: the "Movin' On Up" program.)

End Campaign Contribution Dependency As We Know It We think we have found a way to address the widespread impression that big companies have a "special relationship" with candidates based purely on dollars. POTUS should call for a voluntary system in which funders can only contribute if they also volunteer to do mundane campaign work. Give a $1,000, and you have to stuff 1,000 envelopes. Or have your employees make 5,000 calls for a $5,000 donation. (We are still developing an appropriate formula of activity-per-dollar.) Imagine, for example, Dwayne Andreas going door-to-door with campaign leaflets! That would lessen the gap between the "little people" who canvas neighborhoods at all hours of the day and night and the elite group that achieves influence only through money. (Suggested slogan: "Donating to democracy is a privilege. You have to work for it.")

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