Virtual Town Hall

November 1, 2012

Where do the Candidates Stand on Infrastructure?

We asked our Facebook friends: “What would you have asked the candidates if you had been in the audience at the town hall debate?” We got hundreds of replies on a range of topics. From now until Election Day (Nov. 6), we’ll do our best to answer your questions for the candidates by researching what they’ve said on the issues in the past.

Jim Kennedy would ask the candidates:
“how will you address our crumbling infrastructure,
given the huge debt issue?“

During his first term, Barack Obama allocated $53 billion to create jobs by repairing America’s roads, bridges, mass transit and other public-works endeavors. His proposal contained plans for an infrastructure bank that would use private investment to fund new projects. In November 2011, the president’s plan was blocked by Senate Republicans, who unanimously opposed it, saying that the spending totals were too high.

Throughout the winter and into MORE

Virtual Town Hall

November 1, 2012

Where Do the Candidates Stand on GMO Labeling?

by Theresa Riley

Vanessa Duve would ask the candidates:
“GMO seeds and the ever increasing use of pesticides are causing huge problems and concerns around the globe. Will you label GMOs?”

Mitt Romney has not taken a position on GMO labeling.

Last month an investigative report at The Nation revealed Romney’s close business relationship with Monsanto, the company that has come to personify the genetically modified food market, during his Bain Capital days. According to reporter Wayne Barrett, the “romance between Romney and Monsanto” began in 1977, shortly after Romney left Harvard Law and Business School. During the 1980s, Romney helped John W. Hanley, the Monsanto CEO at the time, to rehabilitate the company’s image by changing public associations with Monsanto from their work with Agent Orange and bovine growth hormones to less controversial products like genetically engineered crops and Round-up, the weed-killer.

Virtual Town Hall

October 29, 2012

Where Do the Candidates Stand on Climate Change?

by Lauren Feeney

The morning after the presidential town hall debate, we posted a question to our Facebook friends: “What would you have asked the candidates if you had been in the audience at last night’s debate?” We got hundreds of replies on a range of topics. From now until Election Day (Nov. 6), we’ll do our best to answer your questions for the candidates by researching what they’ve said in the past.

Susan Swafford Taylor wrote:
“I am concerned about global warming. What do they each have to say about it; do they plan any interventions for alleviating it?”

Despite record-breaking temperatures, vanishing glaciers, rising seas, droughts and wildfires, climate change wasn’t discussed in any of the four presidential or vice presidential debates, and rarely has been mentioned on the campaign trail. On the contrary, the two candidates have each tried to one-up each other in terms of their support for carbon-emitting coal, oil and natural gas.

Virtual Town Hall

October 26, 2012

Where the Candidates Stand on the Eurozone Crisis

by John Light

Stephen K. Smith would ask the candidates:
“Some economist have written that Europe is the biggest threat to our economic recovery. What are your concerns about the Eurozone crisis?”

During his presidency, Barack Obama has pushed G-8 leaders to invest in growth instead of the austerity measures being employed in Greece. Obama has also emphasized ties between the European and American economy; during an October 6 press conference to discuss the American Jobs Act, Obama said, “The problems Europe is having today could have a very real effect on our economy at a time when it’s already fragile.”

The Washington Post and Reuters report that many European leaders openly support Obama and worry about working with Romney after his statements criticizing Europe’s big governments. In August, the British newspaper The Independent reported that the Obama administration would pressure European leaders to hold off on making a decision about Greece’s membership in the Eurozone until after the U.S. elections.

Virtual Town Hall

October 19, 2012

Where do the Candidates Stand on Citizens United?

by John Light

Karin O. Shepherd-Buchanan would ask the candidates:
“Will you work towards getting rid of Citizens United?”

In past statements, Mitt Romney has said he supports Citizens United but dislikes the super PACs it created. He favors overturning campaign finance laws, such as the McCain-Feingold Act, so that donors can give as much money to a campaign as they would like. Romney says this system would require immediate public disclosure of the donations.

Romney also agrees with the part of the Supreme Court’s ruling that says corporate spending is speech, protected by the first amendment. At the 2011 Iowa State Fair, while being heckled by protestors, Mitt Romney suggested that to fulfill promises regarding entitlement programs, the administration would have to “raise taxes on people.”

“Corporations!” a protester yelled, suggesting that taxes be raised on corporations.

“Corporations are people, my friend,” Romney replied, summarizing the implications of the Citizens United decision.

“No, they’re not!” someone else yelled.

“Of course they are,” Romney replied. “Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people. Where do you think it goes?”