Happy Fourth of July!

What better way to celebrate the founding of our nation than . . . um, by . . . blogging?

But seriously, today is a great day to introduce the WashingtonWatch.com blog because, in a way, we try to deliver on the ideals for which this country was founded every day.

WashingtonWatch.com is meant to help improve our representative democracy, and help deliver on our country’s founding ideals of liberty and equality under the law.

In historic terms, our kind of government is a new invention. We’re all still learning how to do it right.

An important part of doing it right is for everyone to stay aware and involved. But that’s not easy.

The federal government does many things and touches our lives in many ways. It’s hard to understand how it all works and what we should think of it. It’s even harder to do something about it.

That’s where this blog comes in. Sure, on the main site, we’ve collected lots of data about the bills in Congress. You can search for bills by name, number, or key term. You can see what bills are new and what bills cost the most. You can discover all the bills that affect a particular issue area. And much more. (Follow it all on our many RSS feeds.)

But this blog is going to help bring it all to life. We’ll talk about how the bills in Congress relate to the day’s headlines. We’ll talk about the bills being debated on the House and Senate floor. (For “just the facts” on key bills in any given week, subscribe to our email newsletter.) We’ll talk about some hidden stories, things you wouldn’t know without being told where to look. We’ll talk about what your fellow Americans care about, what they’re campaigning about, and how they’re using WashingtonWatch.com to do it.

Oh, there’ll be jokes – and I’m telling you right now they’re not all going to be funny. (Pity my friends and family members who have to hear this stuff all the time!)

You’ll see some criticism of Congress and the workings of the Washington, D.C. Beltway. Before I started this site, I thought the federal government was too big, but I’ve been amazed to see all the different things Congress and the government want to do. This blog is not the place to lecture about my personal opinions, but my worldview will undoubtedly come through.

Reasonable people will differ with what they read here, and that’s perfectly fine. I hope people will feel just as comfortable dropping a “huzzah!” in the comments as giving a point-by-point argument against what they’ve read. The key is to be respectful and fair. We’ll do the same.

With that, we’re ready to blog! Thanks for reading. Tell a friend!