The Big Question is a feature where influential lawmakers and interest group leaders give their answers to a question that’s driving discussion in news circles around the country.

Today’s Big Question is: Is bailing out Detroit good policy or bad policy?

Look below for responses from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), National Association of Manufacturers Vice President for Tax and Domestic Policy Joan Claybrook: Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Americans United for Change Deputy Executive Director Caren Benjamin, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Cato Institute Center for Trade Policy Studies Associate Director Daniel Ikenson, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.): The question of whether an additional bailout of the auto industry is good or bad policy depends entirely on how we provide assistance.

Giving the Big Three auto makers more funds to continue business as usual is probably not good policy nor is it a wise use of resources. I have long advocated investments that accomplish more than one objective. Read the rest of this entry »

Incoming Members of Congress have hardly opened their mouths about international economic policies but they’re already being cast by some as skeptical of trade. The reality is that trade was not an important issue in the overwhelming majority of congressional races. Next year, new members will be plugged into a Congress that is moving in the direction of greater bipartisan consensus on trade policy and may find good economic and political reasons to support an ambitious international economic agenda.

The fact is that trade was not an important part of most congressional campaigns. The National Foreign Trade Council looked at 52 House races in which a challenger succeeded an incumbent. Of those races, only 12 successful challengers, or about 23 percent, made any mention of international trade in the section on his or her website devoted to key campaign issues. This figure is a dramatic decline from 2006 when more than half of successful candidates the NFTC analyzed mentioned trade. Read the rest of this entry »

We need to watch this very closely, because there has to be some flexibility in the ways of industry, what assets to buy, what insurances to get, but with that it also means that there is plenty of room for poor judgment or outright abuse. I think we need to be paying very close attention. I’m concerned that there hasn’t been as much transparency as promised. Some of the documents have been redacted when they were put on the internet. I agree with all the other members who said today that we need to be doing a lot more about foreclosures. As long as the housing market continues to collapse, we’re not going to get control of the problem in our financial institutions.

In addition to the problem with the financial services industry, we also have a pretty severe recession. It’s probably going to last a year, and it’s probably going to be the worst one we’ve had in a generation. Certainly we need to be doing all we can to get the economy moving again, not just trying to deal with the problems in the financial services industry.

I have very serious concerns as to how the Bush Administration is spending the first $350 billion they were provided. The second $350 billion tranche must not be spent in the same way.

The administration’s plans as to how the money should be spent appear to be changing on a daily basis. Meanwhile, they are operating in secrecy, ignoring the oversight provisions of the legislation and, with dubious legality, are changing long-established rules by providing huge tax breaks for the banking industry above and beyond the bailout.

I also strongly object to any of this bailout money being used for executive bonuses, dividends, mergers or acquisitions,” Sanders added.

Instead of continuing to bail out Wall Street, we should focus on economic actions which will directly impact the middle class and working families of this country.

We should use the second $350 billion tranche to create millions of good paying jobs rebuilding our crumbling bridges, roads, culverts, schools and water systems. We can also create millions of jobs by moving away from foreign oil and fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies.

See new responses from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, and the Cato Institute to The Big Question, a feature where influential lawmakers and interest group leaders give their answers to a question that’s driving discussion across the country.

Today’s Big Question: Is bailing out Detroit good policy or bad policy?

One of the little-noticed but most important international responses to the current world recession is the reassertion of power by the International Monetary Fund, which ten years ago was the most powerful financial institution in the world. The IMF answers mainly to the U.S. Treasury Department, although it is ostensibly a 185-country member organization.

The Treasury Department is using the IMF the same way it did ten years ago, during the last major financial crisis, in East Asia. Treasury is trying to re-establish the IMF’s former pre-eminent position as gatekeeper to any rescue funds. This would enable the IMF/Treasury to choose which developing countries get loans and what conditions are attached to the lending. Read the rest of this entry »

California voters’ overwhelming endorsement of Proposition 2 in California, a ballot initiative banning the use of battery cages in egg production, gestation crates in swine production and veal crates, shows just how far consumers will go to make sure the meat they are eating is both more humane and ultimately safer for the dinner table. In following the lead of Florida, Arizona, Colorado and Oregon, Californians are not only demonstrating concern for animal welfare but they’re helping to alleviate a problem that is plaguing the public health community — the growing ineffectiveness of antibiotics.

An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics produced in the U.S are regularly added to the feed of chickens, hogs and beef cattle that are not sick. The drugs are used to speed up the animals’ growth and to compensate for the unsavory conditions where the animals are housed. Numerous studies have connected this practice to antibiotic resistant E.-coli, salmonella, and campylobacter bacteria. This bacteria not only finds its way into our meat but also our vegetable crops, as the waste from the animals is used as fertilizer, and into our waterways, as that waste then washes off the land when it rains. Farm workers are especially at risk.
Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, a Wall Street Journal editorial further perpetuated an active campaign that is blatantly misrepresenting Democratic efforts to preserve and strengthen Americans’ retirement security. In light of these ongoing distortions, Chairman George Miller reiterated the committee’s legislative priorities in preparation for the next Congress’ efforts to help Americans enjoy a secure retirement.

The Wall Street Journal is needlessly creating fear among Americans rightly worried about their retirement security by misrepresenting my efforts to strengthen workers’ retirement savings - attacks that have no basis in fact. I do not support ‘abolishing’ 401(k)s, moving these plans, or changing their tax status, plain and simple. The truth is that Democrats in Congress are working to preserve and strengthen 401(k)s. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Department of Labor’s final regulations on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) offer bad news for workers, but mostly good news for military families.  We are delighted that military families will finally get some of the additional support they need and deserve.  We fought hard to expand the FMLA to extend unpaid family and medical leave for up to six months for the families of wounded military personnel, and to allow military families to use FMLA leave to help ease the strain of a family member’s deployment.  With these regulations in place, military families should be able to use the leave they need when they need it.  It is welcome and badly needed.  This is the first-ever expansion of the FMLA, but we hope and expect that it will not be the last.  Read the rest of this entry »

According to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control, fewer Americans are smoking cigarettes than at any time in modern history.

The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record, Reuters reported. This is less than half the percentage (42 percent) of Americans who smoked cigarettes during the 1960s. Read the rest of this entry »