17 “We can play Sim- City on our phones. Why is it that we can- not play SimFederal Budget despite the fact that our taxes and credit are on the line? ” ery weekday morning, I get an e-mail from the White House that provides me with important actions and events of the day. This message includes the President’s schedule, whom he is calling, and who is joining him for lunch or dinner. The White House website documents Presi- dential actions, including executive orders and Presidential memoranda. If I want to know what the President thinks, I check his Twitter feed or his weekly video. Also, I can check out C-Span or search for specific videos of Congressional testimony. When I wanted to understand the proposed Affordable Health Care for America Act, I watched Paul Ryan’s detailed video presentation. Other than Peggy Noonan’s insightful column in the WSJ, there is rarely a reason to access the White House press corps news coverage. When I do, I am often surprised to see how confusing it makes matters. It’s easier to get my news “straight from the horse’s mouth.” One of the President’s most powerful mecha- nisms for communicating has been his rallies around the country which are videotaped and re-broadcast on television and the Internet. These show two-way communication, as the President seems to appreciate being with an audience that shares the desire to MAGA and to move away from the profound conflicts of interest to be found inside the Washington beltway. B. Introducing Cost of Capital and Price Since World War II, we have solved our po- litical problems by printing money to resolve political differences. This has been financed by the bounty provided by globalizing and de- basing the dollar – the global reserve currency – and by issuing trillions in Treasury notes and other federal debt. However, we have reached the limits of growth in these funding mecha- nisms. Consequently, we must now re-engi- neer our role and our national strategy as we decide how we will to deal with missing money and unfunded liabilities. One of the problems in doing so is that we have engendered an understanding of the governmental budget process that is limited to a relatively small group of people. Citizens are not provided with annual financial report- ing contiguous to the areas in which they vote or for their political jurisdiction. We can play SimCity on our phones. Why is it that we cannot play SimFederal Budget despite the fact that our taxes and credit are on the line? We have promoted lawyers and bureaucrats who manage government via increasingly complex rules-based systems. The concepts of optimizing dollars or the return-on-investment to taxpayers using price or capital asset pric- ing models is alien to Washington. President Trump is committed to introducing the con- cept of price to the Washington world. This is one of the “clashes of civilization” underway as the insiders have been used to keeping the money on the Washington side of the equation to themselves. A perfect example was the President’s reaction upon discovering what Boeing was about to be paid for the new Air Force One: “We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.” Additional examples were the President’s efforts to use both “carrots and sticks” to en- courage companies to increase operations and employment in the United States. When he does this, he consistently addresses the benefits that US companies will derive from America versus what they give back. This is the first President in my lifetime that eats, sleeps and breathes price and the manner in which it re- lates to both government and overall economic performance. This is a shocking transition for a town that manufactures rules and leaves pricing issues quietly to the insiders. It is a change that has the potential to reshuffle the balance of power dramatically between– • Citizens who want the budget to support a rising Popsicle Index; “We want Boeing to make money, but not that much money ” For a definition of “Piggies”, please refer to page 71.