On the Illegal 5% Work Tax

Day 2,107, 14:15 • Published in USA USA • by Hale26

Hello America,

As most of you either noticed during your Regularly scheduled WAM clicks, or by following Congress’ debate board, a new WT has came into play. Following a 32-4 vote, a 5% Work Tax proposed by myself has came into law.

…Or, at least, that is what it would seem the large majority of our population. Being the one who proposed this tax, I’d like to do a quick elaboration on what exactly that law for 5% WT is. Looks in this case are very deceiving.

Firstly, Congress has a regulated means we use to pass laws. They must be proposed in the Public (or Private, though that board hasn’t been used in awhile ) Congress and be subjected to 24 hours of discussion, minimum. Following that, they must move to Proposal, gain the support of 10 Congressmen and then pass a vote. The vote must hit quorum, and of course, pass the required majority/super-majority depending on circumstance.

None of that was done for this law.

See, that whole process can take between 2-5 days, lets say. That would be 2-5 days of a 25% WT that is killing our citizen’s. Since no one wanted that, a plan was devised. Very late on the 25th, Myself, Evry (AMP) and Tyler B. (Feds) agreed that we would not be keeping the WT at 25% while Congress debated. Wildowl (USWP) also agreed that this was fine, though later on since he wasn’t on at the time.While we do want debate on this law, don’t get me wrong. But the debate should not hurt our country. That is sadly what it would do if we followed Congressional law.

The agreement was that we would get one of our Congressmen on early in the morning, right after Mods had given Congressional access ingame, and propose a WT. This would prevent an AFA sh*t-show, and more importantly, lower the WT while we debated. This leads us the what most people are up in arms about….

We agreed to lower it to 5%. Not 1. Not 3. But, 5.

Now, if this were a real law, some people would be rightfully mad. 5%, after all the suffering we endured last month? Why not lower it to 1 while the debate is going on? Why FIVE?

Based on what the 3 of us had heard (Supposed to be 4, but I couldn’t find WildOwl (USWP) on IRC because he’s a sane person that doesn’t stay up late. I apologized to him for this), the debate was between 1 and 5. So our options were, of course, between 1 and 5.

We choose 5 because it was the most neutral option in the current debate. If we had put it to 1, now the people who want 5 will want a tax increase. In reality, no one wants an increase; They want a fair rate, since we’ve never had a rate of our choosing before. If we lowered to one, we’d be not only breaking the law, but fuelling our debate with rhetoric.

As congressmen, it is our responsibility to protect the elected official’s debate. We are not going to open the door to empty rhetoric, be it from the 5 side or the 1 side.

I mean, if we’re breaking the law to do something good, we need to keep something intact. Or else then we’re just playing (unwanted) politics with a very sensitive issue.

In short, five was chosen because it least influenced the opinions and thoughts of the current Congress, while protecting our citizen’s from what would be unneeded costs of e-Democracy. This measure is momentary and protected both Congress’ Delibirations and our citizenry.

That being said; I still did break the rules. Anyone who breaks Congressional Rules must be put up for censure, which has already been done at DMV’s recommendation and my request.

I hope this explanation shows why 5% was the best rate to use while debate in Congress went on. I know a lot of that whole “Tax Increase Rah Rah” thing seems empty, but America...this is Congress. If rhetoric can be used, it will be. Nobody wants unnecessary rhetoric, not even some of our hardest politikers.

In the immediate future we will see a new rate passed that takes into account all of our Congress’ Opinions. But for now, the damage has been lessened. Neutrality, let alone far fetched neutrality, is never popular. Neverless, I hope this clears some things up.

~Hale26
eUSA Congress-Gecko.

Aside~ I’d like to again apologize to the Congress Delegation of the USWP. This measure, despite its deep thinking, had massive time restraints. I would’ve contacted WildOwl if I could about it, but the time just wasn’t there. I’ve apologized to WildOwl personally about this, and while he may still be pissed at me, I hope you can see that the USWP wasn’t not talked to out of Malice, but rather, due to Time Restraints. Though, more could’ve and should’ve been done to try and reach out to the USWP. Most of this conspired in extreme times of day, however, so my Human Error as consequence to that is to blame.

Aside 2~ Still confused as to the reasoning behind the momentary measure? Want to yell at me for a reason, or, for no reason? The HALE, WTF DID YOU DO!?! hotline is at your service, ladies and gents. I’m god-awful at PM responses but I’ll try to get back to you asap.