Congress breaks its own law, doesn't care what you think

Day 837, 19:06 • Published in USA USA • by ligtreb
UPDATE: The links where these bills were debated are now public on the eUS forums, but the in-game debate link can't be changed.

UPDATE x2: This article does not mean I am against the tax increases. Admittedly, I haven't read up on the debates, but I don't have a problem with the government trying to maximize revenue, since almost all of our budget goes to the military and war fees. I'm just strongly against the lack of transparency.

UPDATE x3: I did NOT run the ads for this article and do NOT condone the language in them.

UPDATE x4: I wrote a follow-up article to this here. Original article below.

I was in the U.S. Congress for eight terms. I'm usually among the first to defend Congress.

I have never been as disappointed in Congress as I am now.

Check out the country administration page. There are major tax changes being proposed, it looks like many of them will pass. But it's not the tax changes I'm angry about.

Those debate links right now are all in a private section of the eUS forums the overwhelming majority of people can't see. There is no reason a major change to our taxes should've been made in secret. Taxes affect everyone and there is no national security reason to hide debate.

There are definitely things that Congress needs to keep a secret. Anything involving foreign policy, war, peace, MPPs, those very often have very important reasons to stay secret. But stuff like taxes, donations, money issuing, those can be public.

Part of the reason Congress is unpopular is because people don't know what they do. It could only help player retention and interest if they were kept in the loop on what Congress was doing.

Congress broke its own law by doing this. One of my proudest achievements in Congress over my 8 terms was writing and passing a law that required debate links for taxes, donations and money issuing to be public. (UPDATE: Astra Kat G found the link, here it is). That way, more people could get involved in debate and could see what Congress was doing.

But instead, Congress chose to stay secretive and shut the people out on a major decision. Congrats.