Chapter 1216: Continuous Improvement of Money Power

"Is there anything I can help with?" Senator Cleveland asked with a smile on the phone.

It was a good thing that Lansi was injured but nothing happened. The committee chairman personally asked about this matter. It was not convenient for him to call Lansi directly, so he entrusted him to ask.

The Liberal Party had been doing some things recently. They planned to establish multiple new government departments to counter the influence that the Social Party had caused on the federal government during the long governance of the past twenty or thirty years (not continuous governance, but occupying a considerable amount of time).

After President Porter took office, the first problem he faced was to make every department of the federal government not say completely clean, at least the part of people who are specifically responsible for presiding over daily work, must be replaced with Liberal Party members.

He did indeed do so, replacing the heads of a department with Liberal Party members, but the effect was not good.

The reason for the poor effect mainly came from the people responsible for executing the work, who were all Social Party members.

This is like having a Liberal Party brain, but the hands and feet are Social Party members, and these relationships are not as simple as the human body.

The brain directly controls the hands and feet. When the brain moves, the hands and feet react accordingly.

But government departments are not like this. The officials sitting in the office determined the daily work and orders, but the people responsible for executing them did not necessarily execute them according to their ideas.

If you want to ensure that every step is done according to what the Liberal Party wants, you must replace all government employees and officials in all departments of the federal government.

This is a big move, involving a replacement scale of maybe tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, which is not only troublesome and complex, but also likely to trigger a collective strike of the federal government.

Federal government officials and employees can also strike, as long as they feel that the President's approach does not meet their interests, they can fully strike under the promotion of the Social Party.

After all, striking is also the most basic right granted to every federal citizen by the Constitution!

This made the Liberal Party very headache. They were clearly the masters of the federal government now, but they couldn't require those officials and employees to do things according to their ideas like a real master.

After discussing for a long time internally, the Liberal Party decided to simply pick out some important departments separately and establish a new department with the same functions to solve this problem.

The advantage of doing this is that it doesn't need to stimulate those Social Party officials and employees, who are filled in every corner of the federal government.

Now the Liberal Party is starting over. They are still in their positions, but they will no longer be responsible for some administrative work and specific implementation of the federal government.

This idea cannot be said to be very good, because departments like basic departments also involve a scale of tens of thousands of people. They actually can't be completely rebuilt. The only thing they can do now is to rebuild some important departments separately.

Like the "Federal National Security Agency" that is being promoted, it is benchmarked against the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They don't intend to spread it to the entire Federation all at once, but adopt a way of using it whenever needed and leaving whenever needed.

In each state, each important city, first establish an office, maybe only two or three employees.

In this way, two hundred to three hundred people in each state is enough. Adding up the entire Federation, it will not exceed five thousand people.

Then the headquarters has more people, which is the Jinzhou headquarters, which may be equipped with about three thousand to four thousand people.

When the locality has needs for work, these people at the headquarters will send a special work team to the locality. After they finish the work, they will return to Jinzhou.

The total number of people in the Federal National Security Agency is controlled at about ten thousand. Now it has entered the discussion and hearing stage of Congress, and it is highly likely to be passed.

There are several such departments. They are planning and preparing. So far, the Liberal Party has planned to add at least sixty thousand jobs for the federal government.

After all... Porter is the President. As long as he is willing to do so, and the Ministry of Finance can pay for this money, the Social Party has no good way to interfere.

Of course, the Social Party will not interfere. The core reason is the transaction behind it. The Liberal Party promised not to move the personnel configuration of the Social Party, except for the department heads.

This is still very tempting for the Social Party. Although they lost the position of President and the personnel appointment of the highest heads of various departments, they actually control quite a few government departments in practice.

In the Social Party committee meeting, they also discussed this matter. The benefits of agreeing are higher than those of disagreeing, so in Congress, they are highly likely not to vote against it.

Politics is often like this. A moment ago, the two parties were tearing each other apart, but as long as things that meet the interests of both sides appear, they will immediately cooperate.

Under such circumstances, the Social Party still controls some government departments, but the federal government's finance will not favor these departments.

Take the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an example. Last year, the annual budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was about 16 million.

This year, Chester reported a budget of 18 million, but the federal government intends to establish a "Federal National Security Agency" to replace the Federal Bureau of Investigation, so the federal government only approved them a financial budget of about 7 million.

This little money can only be said to barely maintain normal operation, and wanting to do something is almost impossible. Even Chester is considering whether to lay off employees to ensure that some ongoing plans do not stop.

The remaining money is all transferred to this new department, the Federal National Security Agency.

There are already three departments with similar situations. The budget has been significantly reduced. Even if these departments are controlled by the Social Party, it is very difficult for them to really use these departments to do something.

Unless they pay for it themselves.

The Social Party's own days are already very bad, and asking them to take out tens of millions a year to support the work of the federal government departments...

When Senator Cleveland and the others were discussing these things, they considered that the days in the next two or three years might be even worse.

This is a "conspiracy." If the Social Party cannot maintain the employee benefits and treatment of the departments they control, then these people are likely to lean toward the Liberal Party in Porter's second term.

Faith cannot be eaten as food, let alone political stance is not any faith. In short, this is a very complex political game. Both sides are cooperating while stabbing each other.

The more this is the case, these big donors are more important to the Social Party.

Compared with other capital groups, those big capital forces, the money they invest in the Social Party's politics is clearly priced.

They can invest 100 million in the Social Party, but the Social Party must bring them value far exceeding 100 million, such as promoting some policies favorable to them, helping them earn more money.

And when necessary, help them solve some troubles in the government or among the people. Only when they show that their value exceeds the money invested by these consortia and chaebols will these people continue to invest money.

Since this year, the number of political donations received by the Social Party has shown a significant decline, reaching the lowest point in nearly thirty years.

Some party analysts pointed out that as the Porter government's control over the federal government continues to strengthen—

Every president is like this after taking office. As their control over some power departments strengthens, the entire federal government will eventually become their toy.

They believe that if they cannot fiercely snipe him at the end of Porter's first term, then in his second term, the Social Party will lose more than 70% of its control over the federal government.

This will lead to fewer donations of social political contributions, which may only be two-thirds, or half, or even less of the current amount!

Then, Lansi, an excellent fund donor who only donates to the Social Party without "demanding," becomes particularly important.

Senator Cleveland didn't beat around the bush with Lansi either. He made it very clear.

"Now the Social Party's days are even worse than we imagined. Your funds will become very considerable and important to us. The chairman told me when chatting that he would help you as much as possible when you encounter trouble."

"So you don't need to consider that this will add trouble to us or anything. You understand what I mean."

Lansi pondered for a moment and roughly figured out the situation. "This is actually a good thing, Senator."

"Haha, indeed, this is indeed a good thing, but these four years will be very difficult for us." Senator Cleveland's voice revealed a pessimistic attitude toward the bitter days of the next four years.

However, his point of view is the same as Lansi's. Only when the Social Party feels bitter and painful from top to bottom will they be completely united and take that position back.

"I'm considering, is this an opportunity..."

"What opportunity?" Lansi lit a cigarette and took a breath. In this process, his brain nerves were experiencing an unprecedented lightning storm!

"Maybe... is it possible that I can take a step further by taking advantage of this opportunity?"

Senator Cleveland also lit a cigarette. The sound of a lighter striking came from the receiver, as well as the sound of him smoking. After more than ten seconds, "What do you want to do?"

"Maybe... I can also run for a senator or something?"

Senator Cleveland couldn't help but laugh out loud. He wanted to refute Lansi, but as he laughed, he couldn't laugh anymore.

Because he felt that, in fact, this is not impossible to do.

After all, in Lansi's "official data" now, he is indeed a federal person, a native-born federal person, Lansi White, and the files in New Jincheng can check everything he has experienced.

As for whether he is a gangster, isn't this kind of thing decided by the federal government itself?

In fact, many times what the truth is is not as important as people imagine.

He didn't speak, but Lansi didn't stop.

"I now control three states, Denuozhou and Laizhou. After I take South Ya'an State, I will hold four states in my hands, and countless votes that can influence the situation."

"Besides that, in three states, I donate 200 million federal sols every year..."

Senator Cleveland was already moved in his heart. After all, Lansi is his person, his friend. Lansi controlling these three states is equivalent to him controlling these three states.

The power in his hands would be epicly strengthened. When Lansi said 200 million in political contributions every year, even he couldn't help but gasp.

"I will talk to the two chairmen (Social Party Committee and Social Party Representative Committee)."

Soon the two ended the call. Senator Cleveland had no mind to chat with Lansi about other things now. Everything he thought about in his mind was other things.

More funds, more stable votes, although the three southern states were originally the Social Party's camp, no one can guarantee when it will be crooked.

Just like the state taken by the Workers' Party, the whole state suddenly changed its camp, from a swing state to the Workers' Party's territory.

No one can guarantee 100% that a state's political stance will not change, except for Lansi.

This is a big deal, he must get it done as soon as possible.

Lansi also called Chester afterwards.

When receiving Lansi's call, Chester appeared very surprised. "I didn't expect you to call me. Is there anything I need to help with?"

Compared to Roland, Chester is obviously more likable, which of course has a direct relationship with him understanding his positioning.

"I heard that your days haven't been very good recently?" Lansi's words made him not react for a while. After four or five seconds, Lansi added, "Your budget has been cut by half, right?"

Chester immediately understood. He smiled bitterly and said, "More than half, even more than half. In fact, I have already lowered this year's budget."

"We have many plans in progress. If we want to keep the budget abundant, we need at least 20 million or more, but considering President Porter's opinions on me personally, I reported a few million less."

"But I didn't expect them to continue to cut our budget, a significant reduction, so that I don't know how to talk to them now, and how to continue to carry out work."

Lansi laughed twice. He likes poor people, likes people who have no money, and likes people who are simply poor, because simply having no money can be solved as long as there is money.

"Perhaps we can chat about this issue."

Chester immediately thought of something. While showing surprise, he was also worried. "This is very sensitive, Lansi."

"I know you want to help me, but now many people are staring at us. If... I mean if I accept your personal donation, it is highly likely to lead to the opposite result. They might investigate me and take this opportunity to do some things we don't want to see."

Lansi laughed twice again. "Chester, has anyone ever said that you are actually a good person?"

Chester on the other end of the phone didn't understand. Before he could figure out what Lansi meant by this sentence, Lansi said again, "You'd better come to my side during this time, and we'll sit down and have a good chat."

"At the same time, I have one more thing I need your help with."

Chester didn't refuse and agreed in one mouthful.

After hanging up the phone, he sat there and considered for a long time, always unable to figure out what Lansi's words meant. Afterwards, he left the office and drove to his wife's father's side.

As the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the budget approved this year can be said to be pitifully small. For these federal agents, they won't consider whether something happened between the federal government and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

They only know that their wages are tight, various projects have to be stopped, and they even have to face layoffs.

They won't point the finger at President Porter, but will only feel that Chester, the newly appointed director, is not very good.

After all, their budget was very sufficient last year, but it was reduced so much this year, so whose problem is it?

Money is indeed very useful. If Chester can get sufficient budget and guarantee the welfare and even extra income of every agent, then he will have absolute control within the investigation bureau.

Conversely, if he cannot pay personnel wages, project plans are stagnant, and there is almost no welfare, then the agents will oppose him.

Only when it does not affect the income and rights of the bottom people will they empathize with the people at the top.

Once it affects their income and personal interests, they will only stand on the opposite side.

So the first problem Chester encountered after taking office was to find a way to solve the insufficient budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Social Party promised to provide him with some funds, allocated from the congressional project, but this money could not completely solve his problem and could only solve a part of it.

The words Lansi said on the phone made him somewhat moved. If Lansi, this big donor, could handle these problems, the trouble he faced would no longer be trouble.

However, he had to talk to his wife's father first to see if this old politician could provide him with any help.

From the Federal Bureau of Investigation to his wife's father, it was a twenty-minute drive. When he arrived, the old man was also at home.

The Liberal Party's taking office made many Social Party members now in a state of idleness. This old man is also the same.

Although he has his own duties, he actually doesn't need him to work in the office, and he is not willing to face those Liberal Party members, so he simply asked for sick leave and rested at home.

Seeing his son-in-law come, the old man was still very happy. He greeted Chester to his study.

"I thought you would be very busy recently!" The old man poured him a glass of whiskey. "It's too cold, drink some wine to warm up."

Chester picked up the wine glass and took a small sip. "Just now Lansi called me..."

He narrated their conversation completely. After listening, the old man thought for a while. "This is a good thing for you. It can solve the most tricky problem you face now, and you don't need to worry too much about whether this money can legally enter the Federal Bureau of Investigation's account."

"I have heard rumors about Lansi. He is much more powerful than you imagine!" ===== CHAPTER 1217 =====