My Trip To Washington D.C.

Washington D.C., what else can be said about what takes place on Capital Hill these days? Well, from the 21st through the 24th of February I got to experience first hand what our Congressmen and women do on Capital Hill. The experience was priceless. The people I met, spoke with, and bounced ideas off of was unbelievable. Through my four days there a couple of things were made clear to me. First, the economic crisis that we all are experiencing is real and it's far worse than many people anticipated. Second, our state representatives are extremely aware of the issues at hand and are diligently trying to come up with ways to fix the problem(s). Third, even though in order to tackle this mess a bi-partisan approach must be met the feelings are not mutual behind closed doors. Fourth, it was clear to me that our Representatives and Senators are really feeling the heat from their constituents that something must be done and fast! To that affect they passed a huge stimulus bill (almost $900 billion) to try and ease the current economic woes. My consensus was no one thought the package would truly "fix" the economy. By the time the affects of this plan will be felt, the money would already be spent. What if we find it didn't work? Guess what, too late the money is gone!

I received a "crash course" on lobbying and one thing must be said……it's hard work! Our state representatives have their own areas of expertise so when one individuals expertise is defense, another's could be finance. So when an area is discussed that is outside their area of comfortability or expertise they rely heavily on their counterparts for input on the matter. No one individual can be or is an expert in all the areas that are affecting the economy. The biggest problem with this approach is that we have constituents who may or may not like the view point or opinions felt on that particular matter. I did gain new found respect on just how hard our congressmen and women work. It's not all dining and mingling up there! They (Representatives and Senators) are constantly meeting with groups and individuals about their concerns or initiatives. They are constantly in conferences and committee meetings. They are constantly fielding phone calls and moving from place to place. All in all their daily schedule can be pretty taxing. Time will tell whether or not things will change and the moves being made will actually be felt in the "private sector".

Brought to you by: Flat Branch Mortgage
Posted by: Shawn Von Talge