Researching your politician

When I refer to the political machine I not only consider politicians a part of the machine I also consider the host of spin doctors, campaign contributors and the host of people hired to influence our government by their lobbying. However, while these influences help clog the arteries of our government they also bring valuable information to assist a congressman or senator. They obviously are not experts in everything. Politicians do not have time to fully research every detail.

The biggest problem in the political machine is the voter. How can this be? The problems stem from not knowing what your elected official is doing or has done previously. Hence, the old proverb that those who do not know history or have learned from history's mistakes are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Thus, what is the history of your elected official. Such as their voting record etc.

The problem stems from lack of participation and availability of key metrics to make informed decisions before casting your ballot. Obviously, holding our elected officials or politicians to a standard worth or equal to their salary and stature is a must for our country to remain successful.

It would seem our politicians need management skills to direct their staff on what to research and then to draw from their education and past experience to make the right choice on legislation. Additionally, politicians need to do a better job reaching out to their constituents and relaying information about their voting record. A example, a congressman voting down a bill to help children. One might think that is obscene not helping our children. However, after talking to your representative the voter may find that the bill was full of pork and did very little to help children.

This is where it is our job to read these bills. Below is how you do it and where to go to find this information. So, how do we make informed decisions.

To judge or politicians voters first need to find out who our elected official is? It’s easy if you know where to look. When starting to research you can start by searching your own states website or you can start with the federal government.

http://www.usa.gov/

Lets type "Senators" in the search box.


Now we can obviously see there is a link to find your local politician or to be more exact our senator at: http://www.senate.gov/

Here we can see who the sponsor is and “Sen. Frank R Lautenberg of NJ. Interesting enough they had 41 Cosponors.

Now let’s click on the CRS summary and see if we agree that our senators should have voted Yea?

Hmm, it looks like Title IV requires Improved Rails Security which leads the TSA and Homeland security to farm out work most likely to private contractors (our tax money).? Which leads to companies initiate lobbying campaigns to acquire contracts from congress? This is just a quick look at how to find your senator and their voting records and what the voted on. Remember we can go for a ride on the political machine or we can research and make informed decisions to drive the political Machine.