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Citizens of Maine:

Thank you for trusting me to represent you in Congress for the past four months. I come before you to ask for that trust again. You have allowed me to serve you for four terms. During that time, I have served once on the Government Operations Committee, once on the Military Committee and twice on the Budget Committee. I have watched Congress function during one month before the war, for two months during a war that almost destroyed us as a nation, and for one month when our nation was almost fully reunited.


As I will describe tomorrow, Congress has recovered from it's wartime inactivity and dealt with three very important measures during this term. But first, I will describe three challenges that the eUS has faced for a long time, but that our war experience has highlighted. These are the issues that will be my most pressing concerns next term.


Three Major Concerns for the 23rd Congress

Military Strength

Our failure to retake the eUS and eCanadian Hungarian-occupied regions demonstrates that our military and general population are not yet as strong as they need to be. The standard proposed remedy for this military weakness is to call for an increase in taxes to increase military funding. But eUS citizens are already highly taxed. Four terms in Congress have taught me that the choice between raising taxes to increase military funding and refusing to do so depends entirely on the circumstances when the vote is taken. During the height of the war, I voted with most other Congressmembers to raise taxes because that course appeared essential to taking our country back. Recently, I voted against raising the VAT on food because such a tax seemed to me to fall too heavily on new, poor citizens. A majority of my colleagues believed that increased funding for the military outweighed this consideration. The point is that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to keep a promise to always vote to decrease taxes or to increase military spending.


But, Members of Congress, the military and the Administration are beginning to find ways that require little government money to help overcome the eUS' relative military weakness. Training wars, which currently cost 10 Gold per battle help individuals maintain wellness; they also help individuals gain rank, an important factor in determining the damage each fighter can do. This increase translates directly into the production of greater damage in each battle the nation engages.


A more recent development is the creation of private militias. These organizations recruit citizens who do not qualify for the eUS military because of it's branches' high strength requirements. Consulting with Military authorities to coordinate their actions, these organizations send their members where their damage is needed and usually provide them with weapons. Generally, these organizations create weapons companies, put their members to work in those companies at low wages, and compensate for the reduced wages by distributing some portion of the weapons produced directly to their members.


Congress has taken note of these organizations and recognized their effectiveness in organizing citizens to create damage where needed. The 22nd Congress created a small budget allocation to help those running such organizations break even on their operations. Since the military has had difficulty keeping up with the demand for positions in the Training Division from younger players and constantly raises the strength requirements for entry into its higher branches, the militia option is worth tracking closely. For the cost of a few Gold per week, a large number of younger players can be brought into battles with weapons. The increase in damage created should be evaluated, but probably far exceeds the value of the government investment.


These kinds of innovative solutions to increasing military strength and readiness must be considered as a supplement to raising taxes.


The Economy

The eUS is undergoing a difficult economic situation. Wages have declined substantially, making it difficult for citizens not in the military or a militia to equip themselves with the weapons that would allow them to increase in rank as quickly as possible. As described above, this situation contributes to the relative military weakness that so far has prevented the eUS from reclaiming its regions currently occupied by Hungary. At the same time, and partially offsetting this wage decline, prices of all products available on the market have declined precipitously. Despite the decline in wages, many business owners are finding it hard to remain open.


At least part of these developments can be attributed to the revaluation of the USD from 1 USD=0.019 Gold to 1 USD=0.025 Gold. In other words, each USD is worth about 30% more in terms of gold. Thus, a decline of about 30% could be expected in both wages and prices. But the decline seems to have been more than 30%.


Another possible cause of the current wage and price declines is a slowness of the economy to adjust to peacetime levels of production. Although one cannot quantify it, one can safely assume that World War III greatly increased the demand for and the production of weapons needed for fighting; gifts and high quality food used to increase wellness and enable citizens to engage in more fights, and moving tickets as armies and individual citizens traveled the world to engage in battles. The winding down of the war has decreased the demand for each of these items. A decline of prices and wages can be expected until enough businessmen close their businesses to bring the supply into line with demand.


It is possible that these factors are a sufficient explanation of the current economic problems. Only time can tell. But this a situation that the Congress and the rest of the government must monitor carefully. The longer the difficulty lasts, the more urgent it will be to examine it with an eye toward identifying measures that might repair it.


Citizen Retention

Preventing new citizens from giving up the game in their first days of elife has been a longstanding goal of governments of the eUS. The war has emphasized the importance of this goal. It has also allowed us to understand the importance of giving established citizens reasons to become and remain active. Each citizen adds to the defensive wall of the region where he resides. Within about a week, a new citizen can participate in wars and begin to accumulate damage to contribute to ranking up and to help him manage wellness. Consistent training will gradually increase the citizen's strength. Each of these factors helps determine the damage a citizen can do in a fight. As more citizens advance in these characteristics, the eUS becomes a militarily stronger nation.


The eUS has developed a number of programs to retain citizens during their first days of elife. Meals on Wheels, mentoring programs, the provision of moving tickets to allow people to move to Q5 hospital regions and other help provided by the government, political parties and private organizations and individuals are all valuable initiatives that must be retained and even improved.


But the eUS has failed to give attention to the creation of programs to encourage citizens to remain active after their first days of elife. It is difficult to estimate how many of the eUS' 22.000 citizens regularly train, fight and maintain high wellness, but only 4,229 or 19% of them voted in the last presidential election, and only about 13,000, or 60% live in Florida and California combined. So somewhere between 40% and 80% of eUS citizens do not actively participate in the game. They may train daily, but they probably do not fight regularly, and a look at Gobba's map suggests that even many of those who live in California and Florida do not maintain high wellness.


These inactive citizens are one of the most valuable unused resources the eUS has. If we could create ways to encourage them to train daily, fight regularly and maintain their wellness, we would increase our military power rapidly. Creating programs that could give such encouragement must be a high priority for the next Congress. The North American University is an example of such a program. Its courses give advanced information on topics that advanced players may find interesting and useful. We might also want to provide advanced mentoring programs. Might older citizens find it helpful to have a mentor who can guide him in the complexities of starting and running a business? Would it be interesting to some to gain instruction in military tactics and strategy--maybe a War College? Would citizens interested in eUS politics like to participate in an internship in Congress or the Executive branch to learn something about the realities of politics in the eUS? These are only examples of the kinds of programs that might increase citizen activity.


These are three important problems that the next Congress must consider. I ask you to give me the opportunity to participate in Congressional attempts to come to grips with them.


seeker1
Senator from Maine