![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Your Tax Dollars at Work
I've become a bit more politically aware lately. Thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dariusk for pointing me towards OpenCongress, a great website for figuring out what's going on in Congress. The good news: both my Senators and Representative seem to be substantially non-evil, and voting over 90% in agreement with what I would want on the issues that matter to me.
The bad news? I had no idea how much time the House of Representatives wastes on complete fluff. Here is about half of what they've spent they're time on in the last week:
* Supporting the goals and ideals of American Heart Month and National Wear Red Day
* Supporting the goals and ideals of National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans Week
* Commending the people of the State of Washington for showing their support for the needs of the State of Washington’s veterans and encouraging residents of the other States to pursue creative ways to show their own support for veterans
* American Braille Flag Memorial Act
* Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 99th anniversary
* Honoring African-American inventors, past and present, for their leadership, courage, and significant contributions to our national competitiveness
* Supporting the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week, and for other purposes
* Congratulating the National Football League champion New York Giants for winning Super Bowl XLII and completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history
* Celebrating the birth of Abraham Lincoln and recognizing the prominence the Declaration of Independence played in the development of Abraham Lincoln’s beliefs
* Commemorating the courage of the Haitian soldiers that fought for American independence in the “Siege of Savannah” and for Haiti’s independence and renunciation of slavery
* Honoring the life of senior Border Patrol agent Luis A. Aguilar, who lost his life in the line of duty near Yuma, Arizona, on January 19, 2008
And this seems to have been a fairly typical week. It's not that any particular one of these offends me (except maybe the football one), but this is a huge and ongoing amount of effort to be expended on congratulations with no significant legislative content. Don't they have more useful and pressing affairs to worry about?
dariusk for pointing me towards OpenCongress, a great website for figuring out what's going on in Congress. The good news: both my Senators and Representative seem to be substantially non-evil, and voting over 90% in agreement with what I would want on the issues that matter to me.The bad news? I had no idea how much time the House of Representatives wastes on complete fluff. Here is about half of what they've spent they're time on in the last week:
* Supporting the goals and ideals of American Heart Month and National Wear Red Day
* Supporting the goals and ideals of National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans Week
* Commending the people of the State of Washington for showing their support for the needs of the State of Washington’s veterans and encouraging residents of the other States to pursue creative ways to show their own support for veterans
* American Braille Flag Memorial Act
* Honoring and praising the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on the occasion of its 99th anniversary
* Honoring African-American inventors, past and present, for their leadership, courage, and significant contributions to our national competitiveness
* Supporting the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week, and for other purposes
* Congratulating the National Football League champion New York Giants for winning Super Bowl XLII and completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history
* Celebrating the birth of Abraham Lincoln and recognizing the prominence the Declaration of Independence played in the development of Abraham Lincoln’s beliefs
* Commemorating the courage of the Haitian soldiers that fought for American independence in the “Siege of Savannah” and for Haiti’s independence and renunciation of slavery
* Honoring the life of senior Border Patrol agent Luis A. Aguilar, who lost his life in the line of duty near Yuma, Arizona, on January 19, 2008
And this seems to have been a fairly typical week. It's not that any particular one of these offends me (except maybe the football one), but this is a huge and ongoing amount of effort to be expended on congratulations with no significant legislative content. Don't they have more useful and pressing affairs to worry about?