Lift the Heavy burdens from the backs of 800,000 of our neighbors by abolishing the need for a shutdown

Dear friends and neighbors,,

I wanted to share this initiative I have taken. I have sent these letters to the CT Congressional Delegation [The letter I am sharing is one sent to a one of brave, brilliant, progressive women who won by dint of hard work and grass roots campaigns] and Sen. Schumer. Could you both send this to your Senator Schumer and forward this to some one in California. So they can place it before Speaker Pelosi. The computer programs in these offices outside my state block any letter from me. VM

Velandy Manohar, MD.,

Distinguished Life Fellow, Am. Psychiatric Association,

Medical Director- Aware Recovery Care-CT.,President: In-Home Addiction Treatment PC.,

Member- CSMS Committees: Ethics, Quality of Care and Disaster Preparedness,

Member- Consumer Advisory Board- Office of Health Strategy,

Founding Member Community Resilience Coalition-Mx. County, CT

01 07 19

Re: Cut Gordian Knot Petition

Appeal to break the Grid Lock, immediately stop the shutdown by proposing a $ 1 Trillion Bi-Partisan to Reindustrialize America which could fold in strategies to address legitimate Mexico- USA Border Security Challenges while powering the Mighty Economic Engines of the USA

Dear Rep. ,

I am very proud of your accomplishments as a Teacher and your success in a tough grass roots campaign. It was also most gratifying that you were in the House when Speaker Pelosi ascended to the Office and came to be third in the line of succession to be President and Commander in Chief and this was happening 100 years after the House in 1918 recorded a 2/3 vote exactly in support of the 19th Amendment. When you are re-elected in 2020 that would mark the 100th Anniversary of the National Ratification of the 19th Amendment. Congratulations!

I wanted to share what I have been thinking of for few days. I want the principals to stop clawing and barking, snarling and snapping while depriving hard working 800,000 Govt employees of precious life sustaining resources for no fault of their own. Did you watch the speeches? All disappointing performances. No great ideas befitting of a great people and a most exceptional Nation. I welcome your responses.

I am certain ‘Butting heads’ will not result in achieving the results we seek. But Ending the Shutdown, while setting in motion well researched Bi-Partisan plans to replace, innovate and rebuild the long neglected Infra-structure components that support the vital economic drivers of the USA and the mobility of the innovative and industrious people across the United States who built and powered the largest economy by far of the World can mobilize national discussion and support for these plans. This can so improve the upstream flow that the current Log Jams can be cleared.

I

https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/trillion-dollar-infrastructure.pdf

Will the New Jobs Lead to Sustainable Careers?

Anthony P. Carnevale Nicole Smith 2017

I am offering an excellent study by Georgetown University- Center on Education and the Workforce- McCourt School of Public Policy.

I am excerpting the Report:

Here is what a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure might mean for the job picture overall:

The creation of more than 11 million jobs over the next 10 years. These jobs would be a combination of the 6.4 million missing jobs that were not created as a result of the Great Recession (2007-09) and 5 million more jobs in related industries created as a result of the stimulus effect of the new infrastructure.

Wiping away the aggregate job losses of the Great Recession and putting the United States back on the job growth trajectory that existed before the recession (Figure 1- This is great graph.]

A temporary increase in the proportion of infrastructure jobs, from 12 percent to 14 percent of all jobs in the U.S. economy.

An emphasis on occupations in construction and extraction and transportation and material moving, which will make up most new infrastructure jobs (Table 1). 

A disproportionate jobs advantage for men, since the majority (92%) of new infrastructure jobs would likely be filled by men (Figure 5), given the historically male-dominated employment in infrastructure occupations, especially in transportation and construction (Table 1).

The creation of new jobs in management and white-collar office occupations, particularly for workers with an Associate’s degree or higher (Figure 3). 

A potential surge in jobs for less-educated Hispanic/Latino workers. They are disproportionately working in infrastructure jobs that require a high school diploma or less, while white workers are disproportionately concentrated in infrastructure jobs that require an Associate’s degree or higher (Figure 7).

A possible increase in formal and informal training opportunities for Hispanics/Latinos and blacks/African Americans working in infrastructure. As a group, they have relatively lower levels of educational attainment, so they stand to benefit from increased training (Figure 7).

High demand for certifications for welders, concrete strength-testing technicians, construction managers, and construction health and safety technicians, all of which are in-demand credentials.

…

Will the New Infrastructure Jobs Lead to Sustainable Careers? I am attaching the report.

II

https://www.usatoday.com/border-wall/story/flight-over-entire-us-mexico-border-fence/605855001/

A 2,000-mile journey in the shadow of the border wall- Dennis Wagner- USA Today Network

I am sharing this excellent survey and study of the 2000-mile border 

           We must address the hyperbole accompanied with much noise and heat on all sides when these words are uttered: Border, Fence, Wall even though after all these teeth gnashing and bombastic broadsides from all directions it is important to note: 

I am excerpting this comprehensive report.

“The 2,000-mile border already has fencing along 654 miles. But only 354 miles of that is designed to slow or deter pedestrians; the rest has vehicle barriers.” These Vehicle barriers of the Normandie Type or the Post Fences will not stop any Pedestrian.

There are major unanswered questions that must be carefully deliberated on in a Bipartisan manner.

Can a wall be built? Should it be built? At what cost? Will it work? Is there a cost-benefit analysis to determine if or how much wall makes sense, and in what locations?

Ask the White House or Department of Homeland Security for the mile-by-mile analyses. There are none. In fact, a Government Accountability Office report found that Customs and Border Protection never even calculated the effectiveness of existing fences. If a $10 million-mile of wall could reduce the number of illegal entries by half — from 12 to six [e.g. Big Bend Sector]— that would be nearly $1.7 million per migrant turned away.

Are we going to authorize a wall, fence for accruing such meager benefits or should we develop other strategies to secure our Legal Border?

What many crossers still do not encounter is any man-made barrier. That’s because — despite years of construction and more than $2 billion spent — two-thirds of the entire border has no security fencing at all. Most of Texas remains unfenced. [The first fence: A border fence between the United States and Mexico starts about 15 miles inland from the mouth of the Rio Grande] 

There are also many challenges in building walls or fences in the Texas

Any structure close to the river is a possible disaster.

Any structure set back from the river will cut off not just border crossers, but U.S. citizens, too.

And either way, a wall would require seizing land from Texans on an unprecedented scale. 

If the wall and construction for it were to overlap that swath, it would require seizure of some portion of almost 5,000 chunks of land, nearly all of it privately owned. 

Is such a seizure feasible? Consider the progress made after the Secure Fence Act, when U.S. officials filed more than 320 federal court actions to condemn private properties.

Some cases were settled for as little as $100 for an easement. Others resulted in federal payments as high as $5 million for 6 acres. But, nine years after the first cases were filed with a federal court in Brownsville, 85 remain in litigation.

The big-picture question can be asked in a less esoteric way: 

Is there a cost-benefit analysis to determine if or how much wall makes sense, and in what locations? This would require a determination of price per mile, the expected reduction of illegal crossings, and an acceptable expense per deterred person.

For illustration, let’s say a wall along this remote stretch of the Rio Grande might cost $10 million per mile. And it would reduce the number of illegal border crossings by 50 percent. Is that worth it?

The price tag above is made up, of course. There is no official projection on the wall’s cost per mile.

The GAO calculated in 2009 that the border's existing pedestrian fence — those tall steel bollards we first saw 13 miles inland, and which we now haven’t seen for hundreds of miles — cost about $6.5 million per mile. The most expensive mile was $15.1 million; the cheapest was $400,000.

Texas' border with Mexico runs for over 1,200 miles. Twelve hundred miles times $6.5 million equals $7.8 billion to wall [fence] off Texas. (It's exactly the sum Trump requested for immediate aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.) 

 That figure, too, is bogus: We cannot extrapolate the price per mile for a wall based on what it cost to build fences. This is what we know:

·        A wall almost certainly will be more expensive than a fence due to its height, volume and engineering.

·        There are no details. While federal officials have selected some contractors to build prototypes, no actual designs had been released by the time of our journey. To date, the president has said his wall should be at least 40 feet, or at least 30 feet, or no less than 20 feet.

·        GAO fence calculations did not include land acquisition, litigation, and utility relocation costs. Those expenses figure to be huge, especially in Texas.

·        If those barriers are ripped out for replacement by a wall, it will add cost. As more difficult locations are chosen, costs will escalate. The existing fencing was built in relatively easy and inexpensive locations (less eminent domain and easier access, topography, etc.)

These challenges have been and can be discussed and coherent strategies developed to address the challenges I have briefly placed before you.

So, three important steps:

1. Pass the Bills that will reopen the Govt and lift the burdens of the backs of hardworking neighbors and fellow Americans who are being illegitimately punished.
2. Evaluate the Multi-pronged Challenges involved in building the Fence, Barrier, Wall and the cost effectiveness of designs- per mile per person stopped from crossing, the social, emotional and financial costs to our fellow Americans who reside in the vicinity of border
3. Include in the discussion, planning, design, authorization and appropriation of funds to Re-industrialize the USA with a comprehensive multiyear $1 Trillion Nation -Wide Infrastructure re- building and replacing Economy revitalizing plans. 

I welcome your responses.

Your friend and neighbor

Velandy Manohar, MD