Does your Congress representative truly favor full transparency?

Doubtful.

NO & neither does yours!!!

@JLeslie I think it is definite. The question is: should Congress be allowed to sweep their improprieties under the rug?

@LadyMarissa The question was not personal. The real question is what can the voters do to ensure unpleasant actions of Congress members do not get swept under the rug?

The linked editorial portrays the program as handing out bribes. It makes no attempt to discern how the funds are spent by the recipients. They aren’t even attempting a sincere argument.

Also, $2.7B over ten years isn’t a gigantic expense, especially compared to the trillions of giveaways for the wealthy enacted under Trump.

@crazyguy My first job was with a repub senator. My 2nd job was with the repub natl committee. On the 2nd job we did all the research & brainstorming for the Senate & the House for the reps. Constituents were hot on BOTH sides that they weren’t following through on promises made during an election year. I was serving coffee when one of the leaders came up with the definitive answer…tell them that we had to trade off on a different bill in order to get the first bill passed & that we DID get done what we had promised…just not the way the constituent had expected. Then he said, you know that they are too fuckin stupid & lazy to follow the trail to verify IF we did it or not.Very next press conference from a new rep senator, he regurgitated the exact words & then the dems picked up on it & they too started using that for their reasoning as well. Well people quit bitchin & they started believing what others told them. So, in my opinion, the BEST way to get transparency is to follow the trail yourself & DON’T depend on Fox or CNN or NYT or Wash Post to do your work for you. Being a well educated voter takes a LOT of work…work that most aren’t willing to do!!!

@crazyguy “The question was not personal. The real question is what can the voters do to ensure unpleasant actions of Congress members do not get swept under the rug?”

Then perhaps that should have been the question asked in the first place. Asking an entirely different question, then chastising other users for not answering “the real question” is, at best, a shifting of the goalposts on your part.

As to the question actually asked – I seriously doubt it. But on the other hand I can’t really say that my Rep. has done anything for this district. I can’t even recall the last time he’s even bothered to meet with his constituents.

Doubtful. But I’m on my representative’s mailing list and get an email every couple days filling me in on what is going on in congress and what his thoughts of it are and what is being done with it.

Wasting tax dollars to put out more propaganda!!!

@LadyMarissa Soooo….communicating with your constituents is bad, but doing things in the shadows is okay?

Ehh, I’m not sure how much taxpayer money is wasted in sending out mass emails. Not sure how much communication is really done ether.

@seawulf575 A lie is a lie whether it’s communicated to your face or behind your back. The fact that a politician is sending out communications doesn’t mean that they aren’t still committing fraud…and it sure as hell doesn’t mean that they are being transparent!!! Any time a politician starts telling you all the wonderful things they are doing “for you”, insert the butt plug because you’re getting ready to get fucked.

@Darth_Algar A staff member is sitting in front of a computer entering the message for the email is seldom doing it for free. During the 2020 election, I NEVER once received an email asking for my support. I did receive 5 pieces of junk mail pretty much EVERY day until election day & I had already voted weeks earlier. I did receive numerous robocalls.

@LadyMarissa The difference between getting information and not is that you can possibly identify how you will get fucked if you are getting information. You can see what doesn’t look right and question it. If you are getting nothing, you are still going to get fucked, you just won’t know how or when.

@LadyMarissa

Yes, obviously a staff me is sending the emails, but they’re not exactly hiring another person just to do that alone. It’s not really costing anything more than the salary that staffer is already being paid.

As for campaign flyers, emails, etc – campaigns are funded through private dollars, not from the taxpayer coffers.

@LadyMarissa and others: Expenses of staff members indulging in political stuff are definitely campaign spending. Whether or not a staff member is explicitly hired for the job or not.

The Q asked was Does your “Congress representative” truly favor full transparency?
They are NOT my ”Congress representative” until AFTER they win the election, so they are using MY tax dollar at that point & are NOT using campaign funds. They use the campaign funds to kiss my ass in order to get my vote In order to become my my ”Congress representative”!!!

@LadyMarissa Staff members of congressmen campaigning for office are indeed kissing your ass. So their time should be charged to campaigning and not the country’s business. So I am not sure what point you are trying to make.