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Citizens of Maine:


Thank you for trusting me to represent you for the past 6 months. I have done my best to merit that confidence. I have participated actively in Congressional debates; I have published my Congressional voting record and have explained my reasoning for each vote; I have answered every PM sent to me. I now ask you to elect me to another term.


Experience

Again, I cite my lengthy experience in Congress as my foremost qualification. I will not need several weeks to learn where the appropriate boards for a given discussion are. I have had the time to learn the appropriate procedures for any Congressional action. I also have been able to accumulate enough knowledge concerning the policies of this nation to have the confidence to disagree with a large majority of my colleagues infrequently but when I consider it necessary. Such disagreement is not necessarily popular. It often elicits hostile responses. But it expresses my considered opinions.


Issues

One of the most significant lessons my time in Congress has taught me is the overwhelming importance of military action in eRepublik. The eUS is now a major actor in what some see as WWIV and others see as a continuation of the constant war that the rules of eRepublik (game mechanics) dictate. Individuals gain substantial experience and damage points when they fight, making war the most significant means for advancing in the game. Governments that fail to maintain a strong military and numerous allies to support their military will cease to exist. And constant military activity is one of the most important sources of a thriving economy. Thus, both individual citizens and national governments have strong incentives to engage in perpetual war planning and war itself. Tax levels and budgets are determined by this necessity.

Until I had spent several terms in Congress, I had not fully understood the extent to which military activity determines the course of this game. So, let's review the major policy areas Congress has at least some control over, This review will help demonstrate the centrality of military matters in this game. It will also allow us to see how the Congress and the Executive are performing in using their powers to prosecute the current war.



Military

In its November-December budget, Congress provided small subsidies to those private militias that coordinate their activities with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This creative response to organizations that sprung up to organize Citizens for whom the military did not have room has successfully expanded eUS military strength. The military itself reorganized its training corps last month and is now able to serve many more new citizens. One can only conclude that these measures as well as the military's operation of companies that produce many of their own weapons have contributed substantially to our current success in the war to liberate China. We can also conclude that our military authorities have learned and applied many lessons from WWIII. Our military's performance has certainly improved.


Foreign Affairs

It is somewhat difficult to determine where military action ends and where diplomacy begins. Most diplomatic activity in eRepublik has the purpose of improving the military position of the eUS and its allies and undermining the position of their enemies. Diplomats, the Department of State and the President negotiate bilateral alliances (MPPs), multilateral alliances (Eden, Phoenix, ALA, Sol, etc), declarations of peace and war, war games and similar matters. These activities are all aimed at improving our military position.

It is possible only to praise the efforts of our diplomats, supported by the implicit threat of military force. To cite only a few outstanding achievements: Formally joining EDEN was a difficult decision for all of us, but it has turned out well so far. The new World War has demonstrated that all the allies are cooperating closely and effectively. Attaining permission of Japan's government to pass through Kyushu on our way to China and Iran was also a triumph of diplomacy.


Infrastructure

Often considered a domestic policy, we learned during the occupation that the placement of hospitals and defense systems is primarily a national security matter. Before the attack on our nation hospitals of various qualities were placed in most states. The war on our soil destroyed all our infrastructure except the Q5 hospital and defense system in Florida. This gave us the opportunity to reconsider or, possibly, consider for the first time, our infrastructure policy. The war also provided important lessons that shaped a new policy. Before the invasion, infrastructure was placed primarily with the purpose of blocking regions that were potential routes for an invasion. Some infrastructure seems to have been placed primarily because a region was represented by a powerful Congressperson.


The occupation also gave us reason to think about infrastructure placement in a more complex way. We now assume that hospitals and defense systems reinforce each other. Q5 hospitals attract citizens to a region. In order to provide enough protection to be worth their cost, Q5 defense systems must be placed in regions with large (say several thousand at minimum) populations. In addition, the war taught us that a strategic location was not limited to states vulnerable to attack by a hostile power. Equally or more important was protecting our tax base from conquest by a foreign power. Thus the number of companies in a state and its resource endowment came to be seen as important factors to consider when deciding where to place infrastructure, Thus evolved the "fortress strategy".


We now have our one remaining pre-war hospital and defense system in Florida and new ones in California. The first protects numerous companies and a large population, but no resources. The second protects a large and growing population, numerous companies and two high resources. Both are potential targets of attack by hostile powers Future infrastructure placements will be very infrequent and will go to states with the best mix of companies, resources and strategic location.


Of course, only a future attack on our nation will show us the effectiveness of this strategy.


Taxes

Over half of the weekly budget goes directly to the military branches for their operations. But most of the remaining budget goes to activities that support our military strategy. These are expenditures for such costs as MPPs, war and peace declarations and costs of initiating battles, Another large part of the budget is placed in a reserve fund, available for unpredictable expenses such as tanking. Purely domestic activities, such as Meals on Wheels and other Citizen support activities total at most a few hundred Gold per week out of a total of about 4,000 Gold.


These costs are paid by tax receipts (about 50😵 and by selling newly issued dollars on the money market (about 50😵. The government buys USD from the Administrators for 0.005 Gold = 1 USD. The government sells these USD on the money market for 0.025 Gold = 1 USD. For each 100,000 USD sold by the government on the money market, the government makes a "profit" of 2,000 Gold. We issue about 400,000 USD per month. Thus our income from that source is about 8000 gold. Taxes provide about the same contribution to our expenses.


This regime seems effectively to have allowed us to increase our military effectiveness. It seems not to have harmed the economy. Unless that changes, there is little reason to modify our revenue-raising regime.


(Note: Every time I tried to access the eUS Forum to check these statements, it was down. I cannot guarantee they are absolutely accurate. But the basic proportions are approximately correct.)


Citizen Retention and Encouraging Citizen Activity

Domestic programs to retain citizens and make them active also have important military implications. New citizens create higher defense walls and increasingly greater damage in the future. Active established citizens are more likely to fight and change the potential damage into actual damage. Thus, programs to help less fortunate citizens are not soft-headed government handouts. They directly contribute to military strength. Such programs should be maintained and even strengthened.


This wall of text presents only one way to look at eUS issues and programs. A similar presentation could be done from the perspective of the eUS economy or even the political system. But those are different topics.

To anybody who read this far, I would appreciate your vote.

Merry Christmas.

seeker1
Senator from Maine