Join the new world

My goodness! Has time flied? I feels like a day has passed since I was campaigning for Congress in New Hampshire. But, over a week has passed since the Congressional Elections occurred. In that time, we have been working so hard to serve you picky citizens. I am here to show you guys what we have been up to through a hobbit's perspective.

[img]http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00129/Hobbit_Kurten_129422a.JPG[/img]
Yes, I am a hobbit. This is one of my friends. He has what we hobbits call, DumbCracker Syndrome. Don't make fun of us or we will, set your fate!

The Speaker's Word

I am glad to announce that I am the new writer for the Speaker's Word, the official newspaper for Congress. It all started a few days ago when Necros Xiaoban, the newly elected Speaker of the House, started a thread proclaiming that he was looking for people interested in writing for Congress. Me being the creative hobbit I am, jumped at the idea as quickly as possible.

After some consideration from Necros Xiaoban, he took me aside and told me I was the new writer for The Speaker's Word! I was literally ecstatic. The chance to put my passion into work for Congress was just such a great opportunity. Yet, it doesn't stop there. You may know Gulden Draak, the spectacular writer who just recently achieve the coveted Media Mogul, is also the editor of The Speaker's Word. I am honored to be working with him.

But HobbitTon, you can't be writing in two Congressional papers! You're just going to leave this one, right? Well, that's just a flat out no. Yes, I will be working overtime on two great Congressional papers, but both of them are unique in their own right. For instance, The Congressional Analysis is a more opinionated paper about my adventures in Congress while The Speaker's Word is an unbiased overview of what we are doing in Congress.

The newest edition of The Speaker's Word was just released yesterday. To check it out, please click here! I could really use your much appreciated feedback!.


No, Obama's not shooting a basketball. I'm pretty sure he's having those usual pre-speech muscle spasms. Oh Obama!

New Budget Modification

It's only been over a week since the budget had been passed by Congress, and we are already working on modifying it. As you probably know, Congress made a ton of cuts on the budget to save as much as possible without being paying too less. I felt this was needed ever since we have transferred to eRepublik Rising.

This new budget modification wouldn't be affecting the whole budget, but only the military portion of it. The idea had been discussed previously, but Dr. Tango, our "tangy" posted it into thread form. The proposal was to give the (C)JCS a "lump sum". This would mean instead of paying each branch of military a set amount on a weekly basis, the (C)JCS would have control of how the money was allocated.

For example, the Marines and the Army get 14250 USD and 8820 USD respectively on a weekly basis on accordance to the budget. But what if the Marines don't need that much for that week and the Army needs a little bit more for ongoing operations? That is where the (C)JCS would step in and allocate the amount given to each branch. Note that we are not changing the amount of money given to the military, but the amount given to each individual branch may change. Also, the money given to the Office of Militia Support would still be the same every week. All that the (C)JCS would have to do would be to give us a update on where the money is going every two weeks.

How do I feel about this? I am all for this! This way, money wouldn't be wasted on places it wasn't particularly needed, and the branch which needs it the most gets it. This makes the military budget. Putting the responsibility on the (C)JCS is great because he knows more about the military than Congress does. Some Congressmen have voiced concerns that this way the (C)JCS would be unaccountable, but would the (C)JCS even be there if he wasn't trusted?

Budget Spending Caps

Publius, the vice president under the Krems administration, started a discussion for a very interesting idea for Congress a few days ago. Of course we can afford our budget, but to remove the stress of paying it, he recommended that we use 85% of the USD received through taxes to pay off some of our budget.

So far, I don't think that this is suck a bad idea. This might help "The Peg" recover from economic damage. For those who don't know, "The Peg" is the rate in which the Directors of the Congressional Budget Office offer to sell the USD for gold on the monetary market. This also keeps to much money out of circulation, reducing the risk of inflation.

Furthermore, it links our expenditures with our revenue, so it is like a cycle. We will be able to use our money more efficiently, as we are now more realistic about spending. Due to this economic situation, every dollar counts more than ever.

Raising Import Tax on Food

Unlike many other countries, our import tax is one of the lowest in the world. So just recently, a freshmen Congressman, Jaded Knight (a fellow UIP member!), brought up the idea to increase import tax on food to 5% from its original 1%. His reason for making this proposal was that making import taxes would help the domestic companies and raise some more money for the government, which is much needed.

How did I stand on this topic? I did not support it one bit. I have always been a firm believer that stuff > gold. We produce what we need with low prices from domestic US companies during times of peace. Yet, when demand goes up, at war for example, our domestic supply dries up. This makes sense because if you get killed in battle, you probably want more health from your food. If we scare off our importers due to our increased import tax during war, our prices skyrocket.

Of course, more money added to the government is good, especially in an economic time as this, yet, import tax never made us much money at all. Most of our money comes from the monetary market and income taxes. Import taxes on food just make the product more expensive.

It can be said that taxes make or break the general manager of a company. Smart GMs make smart business moves, which in turn bring in more money. Low import taxes help smart GMs while hurting bad ones that are wasting our resources in bad markets.


Man, if food were more expensive, no one would watch my show. Then I would have to go back to my old job *shiver*

Recent Votes

Budget – 7/29/10
Yes
Reason: I like the idea that we are slashing the budget to help save money.

Donation: 116 PLN to CBO – 7/29/10
Yes
Reason: Standard

Impeachment: Bradley Reala – 7/30/10
No
Reason: He has done a lot of bad things, no doubt, but I don't think he did enough to get impeached.

Donation: 895 NOK to CBO – 7/30/10
Yes
Reason: Standard

Donation: 852 NLG to CBO – 7/31/10
Yes
Reason: Standard

MPP: Romania (USA) – 8/1/10
Yes
Reason: Standard ally

Donation: 5100 USD to CBO – 8/1/10
Yes
Reason: Standard

Donation: 830 RUB to CBO – 8/1/10
Yes
Reason: Standard

Tax: Food – 8/1/10
No
Reason: I want to make food affordable for you, not more expensive.

Donation: 813 Try to CBO – 8/3/10
Yes
Reason: Standard

In Conclusion

We are working hard, no doubt. I am finding my first term into Congress an exciting one. I have had my ups and downs, all in one week! I look at Congress as a learning process, learning from your mistakes. I'm looking forward to release more of these. Hope you like reading them as much as I like writing them. Also, help out Croatia! They are in a serious PTO threat. To help them out, please click here! Until then...

Question of the Day

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?