Dem
51
GOP
49
Here is the question we put before readers last week:
S.B. in Winslow, ME, asks: In your item "Biden Will Kick Off His Campaign Tonight," you listed several things he could speak about in the SOTU and on the campaign trail. Undoubtedly, what he does say will be parsed six ways to Sunday, but I wondered what the E-Verse would LIKE to hear discussed and debated this campaign season.
And here some of the answers we got in response, starting with the answer that S.B. gave in the initial message:
S.B. in Winslow: Two items I would love to see and have heard nothing about are: (1) credit card interest rates being capped at no more than 10% above the prime lending rate. I feel that would lower consumer debt and put more disposable income into the economy, and (2) Creating federal regulations regarding health care and prescription drug costs. If we can't get a solid universal health care system, then at least attack the money whores who use our health as leverage. Seriously, is this any different than a thug coming into a store and saying, "Let me make an offer that you can't refuse,"?
D.R. in Phoenix, AZ: I am stunned that the existential and clearly very real crisis of climate change is not at the very top of both major parties' talking points list, given the wealth of scientific information, and now obvious real-life examples of terrifying changes happening all around us. In fact, I recently participated in a poll asking what issues I was most concerned with, and climate change wasn't even listed as an option. Maybe it was a poll by right-wing deniers for right-wing deniers, but soon there will be a brutal and undeniable reckoning, and "I told you so," though satisfying, won't undo the devastation a collapse of the food chain will bring. It seems like it should be hair-on-fire at this point.
T.P. in Sun Prairie, WI: There is a laundry list of topics I would like to hear on the campaign trail. I'm going to limit it to five that I feel will help Joe Biden get reelected. They are: (1) reproductive rights, (2) climate change, (3) border/immigration, (4) our position in world leadership and (5) sustaining democracy. I believe that each of those topics will motivate critical segments of the population to turn out to vote
M.M. in San Diego, CA: I would dearly love to hear Joe Biden and every other Democrat running for office repeatedly explain that our enormous national debt exists because Republicans do nothing but cut taxes for the wealthy and large corporations, thereby starving our nation of the revenue it needs to function. The national debt exists because of Republicans' extraordinarily irresponsible tax policy. And to remedy it, we are moving back to the Eisenhower tax schedules until the debt problem is solved.
A.B. in Wendell, NC: This is something that needs to be talked about... and is probably not on many people's radar at the moment: S.3402, currently in the Finance Committee, otherwise known as The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act. This bill needs to pass. Home ownership is becoming impossible for more and more Americanss, especially in more urban/suburban areas because of the huge number of single-family homes under the control and ownership of hedge funds, which then drives up the price of homes, forcing many lower income and first time homebuyers out of the market.
The one way you build wealth in America is through home ownership, and this path is blocked for many Americans by greedy hedge funds who wish to either drive up sale prices, or keep people renting rather than owning. The bill requires, over a period of time, hedge funds to divest themselves of these assets—namely single-family homes, which should be owned by families and not by hedge funds. It would prohibit them from continuing to buy up available homes, making them more available to families that need homes.
It may not be common knowledge that, in 2021, hedge funds bought nearly 40 percent of homes for sale in Phoenix and Atlanta. And that is but the tip of the iceberg. Here in my own town, near Raleigh, we have a similar problem.
Additionally, the bill would provide down-payment assistance programs so that more families who are priced out of home ownership can afford a home. This legislation, and the problem, both need to be discussed more.
As one who is in the lower end of the socio-economic strata, I own a mobile home—well, the bank does for about another year... but then, I want to move it to my own land instead of paying a lot rent to a trailer park.
Affordable housing needs more discussion in this country, and more ways to own should be pursued. Renters never make wealth for anyone but their landlords.
S.D. in York, England, UK: As we are in an unusual situation where either winner would be leading a party in their second term, I would be quite curious to know from Donald Trump and from Joe Biden, beyond their vice-presidential running mates (the required answer), who do they see as the standard bearers for their party moving forward after 2028?
For me that answer will provide key insights into the legacy-capacities for both candidates in the America they imagine as the country moves towards 2030.
R.H. in Santa Ana, CA: The single most important issue facing this country this year is not climate change or immigration or critical race theory or the fate of Griswold v. Connecticut.
Those are important issues (except for critical race theory; that's a hobgoblin), but they pale into insignificance in the face of the true issue, which is quite literally the survival of the American Experiment.
There is a cabal of right-wing nut-job zillionaires who have been trying to drown OUR government in THEIR bathtub since the FIRST President Roosevelt.
They've been quite open about this; they make no secret of their desire to restore the Lochner Era. There's no reason to believe they'd stop at repealing the 20th century. One symptom of the pathology of greed is that it can never be sated. No matter how much they have, they will always want MORE.
If they repeal the Twentieth Century, why stop there? Why not repeal the Enlightenment? Why not restore feudalism? Why not the Divine Right of Kings? Droit du Seigneur?
Yes, anthropogenic climate change threatens the survival of human life on this planet, but if the RWNJZs get their way, nothing whatsoever will be done about it, so I rank it lower than the survival of Democracy.
J.B. in Hutto, TX: As the Constitution clearly and wisely gives Congress rather than the president the power to declare war, I would like to see it firmly established in law that the president does not have the authority to initiate a nuclear strike on another country unless the United States or one of its treaty allies has been attacked with nuclear weapons first.
S.P. in Pittsburgh, PA: I would love to hear the candidates discuss serious theories on what aspects of the 1983 Social Security deal led to the current shortfall, and what solutions they favor to fix that shortfall before it comes upon us in 2032 or so. I would also love to hear them seriously discuss what to do with the expiring tax cut package prior to 2026. What are their favored tax brackets and why?
Unfortunately, the Trumpist Party is moronic and is incapable of discussing things truthfully or seriously so I do not expect any serious discussion at all.
G.W. in Oxnard, CA: The greatest crisis facing America today should be part of the discussion. That crisis, obviously, is my fellow Baby Boomers on the Internet. Each day, millions of people in this country are subjected to waste of time from Boomers not getting modern technology. My nine siblings are all Baby Boomers, and they can't even handle a text chain. Something must be done!
Here is the question for next week:
M.G. in Boulder, CO, asks: Recently, you gave us a list of usually forgotten persons who have caused great harm to Americans and the U.S. What about a corresponding list of usually forgotten people who have served us well and should be remembered more often?
Submit your answers to comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with subject line "Unsung Heroes"!