NOW I understand…Eliminating a tax DECREASE is NOT a tax INCREASE. Thank you Speaker Pelosi.

Thanks for reading, or in this case, viewing.

–Matthew S. Urdan

Here at Inside Government our mission is to help explain and provide insight into how our government works and to help empower citizens to take action by providing tools to contact representatives or sometimes just to raise another voice.

Sadly, it is becoming increasingly common that when citizens do take action–when first time letter writers decide to contact their representatives such as over the first $800 Billion Bailout last October or when people like me who blog about the state of our government and the actions of our elected leaders–our elected representatives feel it’s acceptable to whip out a form letter and send it off via email or postal mail; in most cases totally ignoring everything that we had to say in our letter, and that we took time out of our busy schedules to write.

Such is the case with a recent letter I sent off to my State Representative in Michigan, Gail Haines. But before I get to that letter and Representative Haines’ response, some background. Gail Haines is a Republican, and I voted for her to represent my district because her predecessor was unresponsive to the needs of us living in Michigan’s 43rd District. I was also inspired by Haines’ campaign and what she promised the residents of our district. Unfortunately, she has proven to be no different than her predecessors, no different from any other politician, and thus, even a bigger disappointment.

The borders of Washington, D.C.

Off the radar but inside the corridors of the U.S. Capitol an attempt to give the nation’s capitol city, Washington, D.C., voting representation in Congress has been raging.  Supporters of voting representation in the House of Representatives for the Americans living in D.C. fall into two camps: those who seek full statehood for the District of Columbia with all of the rights statehood would provide, and those who just want a Congressman of their own to represent D.C. interests in the House. The latter group have enlisted the help of a somewhat unlikely ally in the form of the State of Utah.

The challenges of granting statehood for the District of Columbia are tremendous as the U.S. Constitution places some very tough requirements for adding an amendment and there are only four ways that a constitutional amendment can be added:

• Proposal by convention of states, ratification by state conventions (never used)
• Proposal by convention of states, ratification by state legislatures (never used)
• Proposal by Congress, ratification by state conventions (used once)
• Proposal by Congress, ratification by state legislatures (used all other times)

The Founding Fathers made it difficult to amend the U.S. Constitution because they wanted to ensure that such additions were made only when the greatest numbers of people agreed, thereby safeguarding the Constitution as much as possible from immediate, but short-lived, political concerns.

With all of the excitement that surrounded the first “Bailout bill” and now the furor over the new Stimulus bill I looked through our archives and saw that no one had yet discussed what a bill is and how it becomes a law. The point of this post is purely educational. There are no opinions here regarding the current stimulus package or Geithner’s announcement yesterday that he needs $TWO TRILLION MORE. I’m sorry, was I shouting? In keeping with the main premise of Inside Government – to help educate and inform the public – the following is a detailed look at bills. But, first – a blast from the past for those of you who might remember School House Rock:

Pretty cool, huh? Well, that is a very simplified presentation of how bills become law, but, it is on target and most of you probably remember seeing it. Now we move on to greater detail…

A Presidential Pardon Cover Letter

The new round of White House pardons were Bush’s first since March and come less than two months before he will end his presidency. The crimes committed by those on the list also include offenses involving hazardous waste, food stamps and the theft of government property.

Bush has been relatively stingy in handing out such reprieves. Including these actions, he has granted 171 pardons and eight commutations in nearly eight years. That’s less than half as many as Presidents Clinton or Reagan issued during their 8-year tenures in office.