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The Congressmen and Congresswomen in the 32nd Mandate have held a seat in Congress for the last 19 days. It already seems like it was just a few days ago since we were running our virtual tushes off trying to get your powerful votes. Now, it even seems that it is time to think about the next Congressional Elections, if you are running for reelection of course. In fact, the political parties are even getting prepared for a tough knit Congressional Election.

With that being said, we've been working out tails off doing what we love to do, serving the great citizens of the eUSA! With this edition of the Speaker's Word, we will look deep inside the bowels of Congress. Also, there is a announcement at the end of the paper that you should be sure to read!



Can anyone say "bugs"?

Some citizens may say that Congress hasn't been working as diligently as they have in the past week. The truth is, we have, but not as publicly. As you probably know, eRepublik Rising had been hit with a bunch of hackings and bugs in the last week. We all know who to blame for the attacks, and no, it's not Santa.

In addition, a major external site was hit with a nasty bug as well. Congress usually spends time discussing bills and the such on the eUS Forums. This is where all the magic regarding Congress happens. Unfortunately, the eUS Forums was smacked with a painful Internal Service Error. As a result, it was impossible to have a fluid discussion on the forums without having to having to Reagan Smash the refresh key numerous times.

What was our solution to this problem? We took to the Internet Relay Chat. All we could do about the forums problem itself was just to play the waiting game.


I will be back, with exterminators!



50% Iron Income Tax

Off the top of your head, you may be thinking, "Why in the name of Dio would they even start a discussion for raising income taxes so I only receive half of what I should? Idiots.". Well, there are two sides to this story.

As you may know, the United States returned the great region of Karnataka back to India. During the time when we had Karnataka in our possession, it was our number one iron region because it was a high iron region. Now that it is gone, the United States is only occupied by mediocre medium iron regions. So why wouldn't we just promote business owners to open a company on a medium iron region? It's better than no iron, right?

The point several Congressmen were trying to make was that raising income tax on iron companies to 50% would deter domestic iron companies. We already have allies with high iron that we trade with. As a result, this makes iron companies a waste of money because our allies sell us iron cheaper than it would be to domestically make it. So in essence, many Congressmen have agreed that increasing income tax on iron would save a lot of people a lot of much needed moolah.

On the other hand, the opposition had been saying that the raise would be completely worthless. Mayor Fawkes brought up that iron companies are making zero profit right now. Because of this, taxing workers will discourage them anymore than not getting a profit. In addition, Devoid, who is not a Congressman but a member of the United States Marine Corp and former Secretary of the Treasury came to me privately and told me his opinions on this matter.

"Due to the mechanics of medium versus high-regions, I am convinced that right now, there is not one profitable iron company based within the United States. Any such company still in operation is doing so without regard for its bottom line. As such, I don't see any reason why taxing *the workers* of such a company at a higher rate is going to lead to these companies shutting down. It may push away workers who know about the hi."

As this time, this proposal is only in the discussion stage, so please stay tuned in for more information in the future.


This guy started a domestic iron company.



Revised Budget and Spending Caps

On the 6th, Dio follower Publius released a proposal to Congress regarding a new revised budget and spending caps. Just as a note, in less than one month Congress has gone through many budget discussions. This is because of the need to keep modifying it to fit the current need of the American people. The goals of this new proposal were to create a reserve by spending less than what we take in. As a result, we have something to fall back on. The other goal was to restore The Peg by absorbing excess USD in circulation.

In addition, this proposal calls for added responsibility for the Director of the Congressional Budget Office. He has to track daily spending and post a weekly counting of reserves in a secure location. Furthermore, he has to give Congress a brief status update on The Peg, budget, and deficit spending just once a month. This should just help us know how it is flowing.



New Citizen Message Flops

As you probably witnessed in the previous days, our beloved president, St. Krems, was hard at work proposing New Citizen Messages. These are the messages a person in the Unites States recieves automatically after they are newly recognized citizens. If you clicked on the proposal page, you could probably see that the majority of the Congressmen voted no to it. And no, we are not mooching of free experience points. At least, we're not trying to.

The reason why we have been saying no is that the message cuts off before it finishes. The scripting in eRepublik Rising is not as simple as it should be, so it does take a while to get it down right. Just one mistake can mess up the whole message. With this being said, St. Krems was having a bit of an ordeal with this scripting thing. Since you can only send out a New Citizen Message proposal every so often, he couldn't see what his problem was until it was too late.

I am happy to say that St. Krems has mastered the scripting and finally got a New Citizen Message proposal to look good. Congratulations St. Krems, you are not mentally retarded.



The Speaker's Word Questionnaire

Yes! In order to improve The Speaker's Word, I have issued a questionnaire with this edition using Google Docs. With this, you can send us feedback and comments on how The Speaker's Word is doing as a newspaper. I urge you take the time to fill it out, since it will help us make the paper better for you. The link to it can be found here.



Until next time America,

HobbitTon
~The Speaker's Word Writer~

Gulden Draak
~The Speaker's Word Editor~