Category: Money & Politics

37
votes

Given the fact that in the Spring (& now Winter) Primaries and Caucuses is the ONLY time we get have a say in who we want for US President (the General election in November is to vote for the Electoral College, not the candidate), When do you think the American Voters will Finally get to Vote for a U.S President? More

Asked 6 weeks 5 days ago of All U.S. Congress
by Lee Derr from Fort Worth, TX
32
votes

Considering the displeasure reportedly voiced by congressionals about Fannie and Freddie golden parachutes for their CEO's when will the elected officials of the government go on Social Security and give up their golden parachutes? Bet Social Security would get fixed last week if this happened
More

Asked 2 weeks 4 days ago of All U.S. Congress
by AYL Guest
4
votes

Paulson's sketchy notes so far say that besides actual distressed loans, the Treasury may buy CDO's. "Cash CDO's" are directly collateralized by real assets, but 3rd party credit default swaps are just a kind of betting for "fatcats". Can you guarantee we won't become the "Casino of Last Resort" on the taxpayers' dime? More

Asked 6 days 41 min ago of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)
by AYL Guest

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4
votes

Paulson's sketchy notes so far say that besides actual distressed loans, the Treasury may buy CDO's. "Cash CDO's" are directly collateralized by real assets, but 3rd party credit default swaps are just a kind of betting for "fatcats". Can you guarantee we won't become the "Casino of Last Resort" on the taxpayers' dime? More

Asked 6 days 41 min ago of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)
by AYL Guest
32
votes

Considering the displeasure reportedly voiced by congressionals about Fannie and Freddie golden parachutes for their CEO's when will the elected officials of the government go on Social Security and give up their golden parachutes? Bet Social Security would get fixed last week if this happened
More

Asked 2 weeks 4 days ago of All U.S. Congress
by AYL Guest
37
votes

Given the fact that in the Spring (& now Winter) Primaries and Caucuses is the ONLY time we get have a say in who we want for US President (the General election in November is to vote for the Electoral College, not the candidate), When do you think the American Voters will Finally get to Vote for a U.S President? More

Asked 6 weeks 5 days ago of All U.S. Congress
by Lee Derr from Fort Worth, TX

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These questions are recommended by CNC Journalists. Tell us what you want our journalists to ask: Click the VOTE button.

32
votes

Considering the displeasure reportedly voiced by congressionals about Fannie and Freddie golden parachutes for their CEO's when will the elected officials of the government go on Social Security and give up their golden parachutes? Bet Social Security would get fixed last week if this happened
More

Asked 2 weeks 4 days ago of All U.S. Congress
by AYL Guest
23
votes

Whatever happened to your commitment to term limits? More

Asked 15 weeks 6 days ago of U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH)
by john chappell from Willoughby, OH
36
votes

As the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, what are your priorities going to be in making sure that 2008 is a year of progress and change for the Democrats and Congress? More

Asked 38 weeks 4 days ago of U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)
by elvin from Boston, MA
48
votes

What will you do to reform the redistricting system in this country, which has led to most seats in Congress being so safe that even a major shift in public opinion won't be reflected in an election. More

Asked 40 weeks 2 days ago of All U.S. Representatives
by Barbara Knapp from Germantown, MD

Answered

Who authorized the departure of Saudi Nationals (including the Bin Laden family) when the U.S. airspace was otherwise closed?
Asked by: Kurt Christensen from Westminster, MD. Received 17 Votes.
Categories: Civil Liberties · Homeland Security · Money & Politics · President Bush · Terrorism · Transportation. Tags: 9/11/2001 · Bin Laden · terrorism.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC)

I don’t know the answer to that. I was not in Congress at the time that that happened and I don’t know that anybody did. I don’t know how to answer that question.

Answered on Aug 7th, 2008 More
Will you support a measure to bring instant-runoff voting into the electoral process in order to increase third party participation in government while at the same time avoiding the so-called third party "spoiler" scenario, thus advancing the democratic process as a whole in the United States?
Asked by: Caleb Brown from Los Angeles, CA. Received 22 Votes.
Categories: Money & Politics. Tags: democracy · Election · Spoiler · Third Party · Two Party System.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT)

One of the problems you have if your goals is democracy is usually runoffs, the history of runoffs, is they produce less people voting in a runoff elections than we’re voting in a regular election. So that people have won runoffs getting fewer votes than they had coming second in a regular election. So if your goal is actually expanding the so called democratic process, runoff elections both in the United States and France have not demonstrated they actually do that. You got to come up with a better way than that.

Answered on Aug 7th, 2008 More
Whatever happened to your commitment to term limits?
Asked by: john chappell from Willoughby, OH. Received 1 Vote.
Categories: Ethics · Money & Politics. Tags: broken promises · campaign promises · congressional distrust · Elections · ethics · politics · promises.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH)

Well, term limits was part of the ‘Contract With America’, we had a vote on the floor that would have made federal term limits to 12 years, 6 terms, because there was a court case out in California that indicated that the state referendums like in Ohio were unconstitutional. It failed and as a result we don’t have federal term limits. And now that I’ve been here for a little bit I see that my opinion, two opinions, I think term limits has ruined the state legislature in Ohio and given us a lot of bad government.

Answered on Jul 28th, 2008 More
Do you support the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset of Social Security? Public employees who worked under Social Security AND a government pension program (state) are not able to receive the amount of Social Security they EARNED, and many are therefore living in poverty.
Asked by: Constance Harse from Athens, OH. Received 45 Votes.
Categories: Money & Politics. Tags: public workers · retirees · seniors · social security.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-OH)

Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-OH): I do support the repeal. Number one I think the offsets are unfair since a retired worker with a private pension is not subject to the same offsets. Why should for example a state teacher be penalized because they have paid in to Social Security under a previous job. I believe we should repeal this government pension offset.

Jodi Breisler: And is there anything even being talked about in Congress right now?

Answered on Jun 17th, 2008 More
As the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, what are your priorities going to be in making sure that 2008 is a year of progress and change for the Democrats and Congress?
Asked by: elvin from Boston, MA. Received 36 Votes.
Categories: Campaign 2008 · Economy · Money & Politics · Regulation · Technology. Tags: 2008 · appropriations · Oversight and Government Reform.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Our committee has three goals and this is what we have been trying to accomplish: protecting taxpayer’s dollars from waste, fraud and abuse and making sure government works for the people third holding the government of this country accountable for their actions that’s what we have been trying to do in 2007 and 2008 during the time I have been chairman of that committee.

Answered on Jun 5th, 2008 More
Digital rights pioneer Larry Lessig recently launched the 'Change Congress' website, which encourages "a national movement to end corruption in America's congress. " The site organizes citizens to encourage their lawmakers to pledge to change the rules of Congress to favor transparency. Sen. Feingold, will you take this pledge?
Asked by: elvin from Boston, MA. Received 9 Votes.
Categories: Arts | Culture · Money & Politics · Regulation · Technology. Tags: appropriations · Change Congress · Larry Lessig · no more earmarks · transparency.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. John Salazar (D-CO)

Salazar: Well I think we made major reforms just this last term in the 109th. And we have certainly made clear, a clear movement towards transparency especially in the earmark reform area. And so I think while Democrats have been trying to do the good things we’ve been constantly blocked by the minority party.

Laslo: Do you think there is more that needs to be done on transparency legislation and ethics reform?

Answered on May 9th, 2008 More
What will you do to reform the redistricting system in this country, which has led to most seats in Congress being so safe that even a major shift in public opinion won't be reflected in an election.
Asked by: Barbara Knapp from Germantown, MD. Received 48 Votes.
Categories: Money & Politics. Tags: government · politics.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)

Well as you know the way this is done, it's really handled by the state legislature. The state legislature, every year right after the census is done, will go ahead and consider the reapportionment. I served in the state legislature 14 years, one year as Secretary of State, so I went through one redistricting as a state legislator and then another one as Secretary of State, so it is something we need to look at because there have been in certain circumstances, even here in the state of Texas, where it got too partisan.

Answered on Apr 22nd, 2008 More
Do you support voluntary public funding of all federal elections to reduce the influence big money has on our democracy? You'd be able to spend more time serving your country and less time dialing for campaign contributions.
Asked by: Matt Stempeck from Washington, DC. Received 18 Votes.
Categories: Campaign 2008 · Ethics · Money & Politics. Tags: 2008 · campaign finance · lobbyists · public funding.

Listen to: U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK)

First of all, I’m opposed to public funding of political campaigns – first and foremost because most of the public is as well. It’s not a very popular system. Second, it doesn’t remove money from campaigns; it just removes it from candidates. And you see it spent through all sorts of special interest groups and organizations with every point of view. So I would much prefer that my tax dollars go to fund government, and that I contribute to candidates I support as opposed to a portion of the money that I pay to the government being diverted to people I may or may not support.

Answered on Apr 18th, 2008 More