Bentzen’s Blog

DownsizeDC.org
by Brian Bentzen

After listening to last week’s Freedom Watch, I visited one of the featured websites, DownsizeDC.org.  This website is run by a group of individuals who believe in smaller government and believe the best way to save our country from its current downward spiral is to change the behavior of currently elected politicians.  They don’t work to elect the best candidates, because good candidates can become better politicians.  Instead they provide a means for concerned citizens to easily email their Representative and both Senators in a single step regarding current issues and possible new legislation.

After signing up for their site, I received an email update.  They send out 3 to 6 updates a week, each day focusing on one of their current campaigns.  These campaigns range from topics like “Federal Deficit Causes Congressional Pay Cut” to “Make Congress Read the Bills Before Voting” to “Repeal the REAL ID Act.”  Today the featured campaign was  ”Cap and Trade is Not the Way.”  By clicking on a link in the update, I was able to find out that my Representative Tim Holden (D-PA) voted against the recent cap and trade law.  I was then able to send a message to my Pennsylvania Senators, urging them to vote against cap and trade.  They provide a mandatory lead in sentence so you can’t violate the intended use of their site that began, “I think the cap and trade legislation is bad policy.”  From that beginning I wrote my own short and concise message regarding my thoughts on cap and trade.  I immediately received a confirmatory email and later in the day, received an automated response from Senator Casey say that my email would be read by his staff.

I urge everyone to look into this site and explore their campaigns.