This Week in Congress

Day 1,620, 09:57 • Published in Canada Canada • by Randall Flagg 1999

Rekindling a tradition I started last year when I last was in congress, I will post regular updates about my going-ons in congress. Essentially, letting you, the voters know what I've been voting and why. This is one of the ways I am aiming to help encourage transparency.

So what have I been doing in congress this week?

The first vote on the docket was decreasing the Citizen fee from 50CAD to 49.5CAD. The vote was 5 yes and 32 no. I voted with the no's for two reasons, the first being that if change is needed to that value, 0.5CAD is hardly much change one way or the other; and the second is that I see no reason to change it in the first place.

Up next was increasing the VAT to 25% from 12%, and the Import Tax to 50% from 10%. The final vote was 5 yes 32 no. Again I was with the no's. I do not believe we need to raise the VAT any further. As for the Import Tax, I do agree with raising it; however, not by such a large amount.

There was also a vote on decreasing the minimum wage from 1.2CAD to 0.1CAD. The vote went 7 yes to 30 no. I voted yes on this issue as I believe it sends a message to our MU's that have workers on the minimum wage that we do have their interests in mind. I will grant that the change is small (yes, in a similar way to the Citizen fee), but I think the message here is more important than the amount changed.

The next two were alliances with Albania and Russia which passed 33 to 2 and 37 to 2 respectively. On both accounts I voted yes as we need countries of strength in Eastern Europe. While Russia can provide this, Albania not as much. I do understand it is in a tough patch, but I believe Albania will prove to be a valuable ally in that region.

After this I voted in favour of creating the UK as our natural enemy. Sadly this failed to pass as 2/3 of congress is needed for it to pass despite the vote being 25 yes to 13 no. I am currently asking around to see who is responsible for this. The UK has been our historic foe. They are currently struggling on their home isles, but there does not appear to be any other foe that would warrant a NE that currently needs our aid to be put down. And while this is only speculation, I would not be surprised if this was the work of those in congress who have hurt eCanada before.

And finally as of the writing of this article, I am proposing an increase to the Import Tax but leaving the VAT as is. As stated above I do agree with some increase to the Import Tax so I am proposing increasing it to 20% from 10%.

And that has been this week in congress. I will be updating this every Friday to provide a forum of sorts to discuss how best we in congress can be used to help the citizens of eCanada.

Also, as a shameless plug, vote Sperry on the 5th 😛 yes Sperry, I know you are reading this!