We talked about yesterday that emails, letters and phone calls = Delete, file 13 and voicemail. Now that you have shown up at the local or Washington office, they know who you are and now we need to take another step. Follow this link, copy and paste it into the address bar:
http://www.thecapitol.net/FAQ/images/RL30064.pdf
and you will find out exactly what your Congressman has as income and expenses from the government. It's only 15 pages. Send a copy of what you find, what is of interest to you or whatever your just curious about, to their Washington Office and their local constituent office and ask them for the details of how that money was spent by them. Can that be found online? I am not sure. I believe it is more important that we ask THEM for direction and information, after all we hired them, we pay them and we want an accounting. You of course can do the same thing for your Senators.
What we have forgot, and they are really glad we did, is that we hire them, they serve at our pleasure, they are accountable to us, and we can and will FIRE them if necessary. Funny, that sounds like something most of us have lived with all of our working lives. What a novel idea that it should apply to them :).
A response that is not acceptable is a response from them sending us back to the link that I have included. The only acceptable response is one that clearly indicates they are clearly providing the income and expenses for your particular Congressman/Senator. This is not confidential information. They will try to put you off. Don't let them. We have the Freedom of Information Act if need be. But what Congressman/Senator would want to hide anything regarding the salary and expenses, that WE pay them, from us? If you get such a response, I would like to hear about it here. Anyone who gets such a response, please post the name of the Congressman/Senator here and I will see that all the newspapers in their District get a copy of the post and any others that might find it of interest.
Another response that is not acceptable is a response that indicates that the Congressman/Senator get so many emails, letters, or phone calls that he/she can not respond to them all. BALONEY!!! We give them money to have people to do just that WITH them, not for them. THAT'S THEIR JOB. Keep a copy of everything you do communication wise so that the next time the the Congressman/Senator is in town and doing something in public, you can appropriately confront him/her on their lack of attention to their BOSS!!!. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, KEEP COPIES OF EVERYTHING!!!!
Well now that ought to be a real incentive to hold a public forum back in their District ASAP. By the way, request a copy of their schedule for as far out as they have it for when and where their public appearances, town hall meetings, will be so we can be there to greet them!Don't let them tell you they don't have it or that it is too fluid a situation. They plan and know those things weeks if not months ahead. Also Google their names once a week to see what they are up to that you might not otherwise know about,and look at their website EVERY WEEK!
That is just a start. I have many more things to share and tell you about, that if you choose, can help you hold your elected representatives much more accountable and for us to "STOP TEACHING THEM TO IGNORE US"! I would like to think that if we all do this that someday they will "get it" and we could relax a little. NEVER!! Not in this or any other lifetime! The WHO is us, the time is NOW!
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