Senators and Representatives home for the August recess have been notified not to return to Washington. Instead, they are being replaced by robots who will take over when Congress reconvenes in September.
The project, which has been in development for the past seven years, is intended to reduce wasteful government spending. Replacing the human Congress will save about $100 million a year in Congressional salaries alone, besides the growing costs for travel, health insurance, retirement, and other expenses.
In contrast, the cost of purchasing each robot is $150,000. Yearly maintenance on the robotic Congress is estimated at $200,000. During a time of soaring deficits, the federal government was looking for innovative ways to reduce spending.
This transition was originally to take place during the summer of 2010. But it was decided that the public’s intense disapproval of the current members of Congress, particularly over health care reform legislation, made this an opportune time to bring in the robots.
The robots, which are not affiliated with a particular political party, will each hold its seat permanently until it is no longer functional, at which time it will be replaced by a new robot. The Congressbots are each equipped with a random vote generator which will cast votes either for or against each piece of legislation. The obvious advantage to this over the old Congress is that the American people can be assured that their new robotic representatives will not be swayed by special interest groups, big campaign contributors, or any other factor.
The latest Rasmussen poll shows that 57% of Americans support this change. The telephone poll, which surveyed over 2,000 people across the country found that 19% of Americans believe that having robots in Congress will improve the performance of the Legislative Branch, while 13% believe the new Congress will perform more poorly than the old Congress made up of humans.
However, the majority of those surveyed (68%), believe this will have no real impact in the work that Congress does. The robots, like the humans they are replacing, will cast their votes without considering the content of the bills or listening to feedback from the American people.
I.M. Cirius
