Does voting matter?

One of the most fundamental rights of any citizen within a Democratic society, such as that of the United States, is right to influence government to more accurately represent their interests--a right most clearly defined in the ability to vote. While some elections, as in that of the President, are not directly deomocratic, voters nevertheless have an important say in the outcome. One of the most important aspects of voting is simply the action, the exercising of a citizens natural right. The result of most elections may still leave a large group (slightly less than the majority) unsatisfied with the results, but without this process of public voting the democratic spirit of the country would be non-existant. Dealing with presidential elections, many citizens argue that since the process is not direct and the decision passes through an electoral college that their vote is meaningless. The electoral college, however, has pledged to cast their vote in line with the majority in their section. While some of these members may, and have broken this pledge in certain circumstances in the past, these occurances are rare and in most cases the opinion of the state is represented through the college. Strong voter trends in particular states may also be a discouraging factor for many voters, as a tradition of party voting may be very difficult to break in a state's history. Despite some of these trends, the current election shows that some states once thought to be sure-captures for either party have moved closer and become toss-up states. These changes prove that no traditions are set in stone; it is never pointless to cast your ballot, even when a state has had a strong, consistent history in similar voting. While those who do not believe in the political process may be hesistant to vote for any political candidate, more and more citizens are encouraging each other to be proactive about using their political voice and showing up on election day. Voting not only allows every man to contribute to the political decisions and appointments of his country, but it is the means through which the purest sense of democracy shows up in the political process, connecting the people to their representative government, if only briefly. Voting does matter.

The Federal Budget Process

1. Budget formulation- in this process, a budget undergoes various processes of request, markups hearings, and voting to decide details of the budget. In this process it will pass back and forth between Congress and the agency and will undergo various conferences in which the agency and Congress negotiate to settle their differences. At its final step the finished version will either be signed into action or vetoed by the president.
2. Execution- small changes may be made to fit the budget to appropriate resources, resources are allocated, and any investigations regarding them may occur.
3. Congressional oversight- continues for three years, after which Congress will remark on the success over that period.

http://www.budgetanalyst.com/Process.htm
-links avaiable at each step

Bush and the Bailout

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a2PslgpVvrCI&refer=home

According to several different sources, President Bush has lost the support and faith of Congress in this issue of the bailout. The bill, a now 400+ page document (began as two-and-a-half) filled with extra earmarks, was finally passed last week and signed into law by the president. The result of this process, however, has been rather revealing about the state of the administration as well as the lack of faith that Congress has in it. The initial failure of the bill, caused by disagreement in the administration's own party, shows this lack of unity/support/ect. which exists within the party and the administration. The above source and several others suggest that the President had to go to desperate measures of various "arm-bending and begging" of the Congress in order to pass the bailout. Such extents would suggest a serious lack of power in the Presidency, which is already bottoming out in approval ratings, especially in such critical times as this economic emergency. Clearly, the trust in President Bush has waned. In order to sign the bill he almost certainly must have compromised with whatever stipulations that Congress put on it, and the situation in general has an air of desperation on the President's part.