Latest Answers http://www.askyourlawmaker.org/answers/latest/349/%2A/%2A/%2A a view of answers sorted by date en Right now in the United States we pay about twice what the world going rate is on sugar, and that causes cookies and candies and all kind of other products to be more expensive at the supermarket, because of the sugar policy in America. And there are a fairly small number of very wealthy falimies in Florida that take advantage of this to the detriment of the rest of the country. So in my view we ought to let the market determine what the price of sugar ought to be and we shouldn’t have any sort of subsidy or any sort of tariffs on sugar. We ought to let the market determine the price of sugar.” <br><br> <b><i>Reporter Matt Laslo:</b> “Are these just arcane laws, why are they still in place?”</i><br><br> <b>Chabot:</b> “We have a lot of subsidies unfortunately on all kinds of products from peanuts and cotton to sugar and others as well. And each one of them sorta scratches the back of the other, and even though on an individual basis they would say the others aren’t very good, they think theirs is good and they all work together to keep all these subsidies on all these crops, so we pay higher prices at the super market because we have subsidies and we have tariffs on so many different products in this country. We ought to do away with them all and let the markets determine. http://www.askyourlawmaker.org/answers/right-now-united-states-we-pay-about-twice-what-world-going-rate-sugar%2C-and-causes-cookies-a Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:07:49 -0500 Matt Laslo 1223 at http://www.askyourlawmaker.org I used to be for six years the chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution, so it’s something that I take very seriously. Probably one particular area that Congress should always focus attention on is that the presidency, the executive branch, doesn’t overstep its bounds. The War Power Act is something that was passed some years ago to make sure that when a president is going to commit our troops militarily, overseas, that Congress has a role to play. It’s never actually been taken up to the Supreme Court but many have argued that presidents, whether it’s this one now or ones in the past, have overstepped their bounds and haven’t included Congress appropriately in decisions as to whether this country ought to go to war or not. Because it clearly says in our Constitution that it is Congress that is to declare war, and how does that apply in Iraq or Afghanistan? What I’m essentially saying is it is Congress’s responsibility to uphold its powers under the Constitution and one of those powers is whether we have a war or not, whether it’s declared or not. Most Congresses in the past really haven’t been willing to push that as far as it needs to go to get a determination, so it may very well need to go to the Supreme Court. REPORTER: One other part of this is signing statements. The expanded use of signing statements in some people’s view to get around the letter of the bills that Congress sends him and that he signs. Do you have a concern about them? CHABOT: I have a concern to the extent that if a president either this one or one in thefuture might abuse that technique than I think it is up to Congress to dispute this and take it to the courts and have a determination made. I have not really seen evidence that President Bush has abused the process, although there are some Members of Congress who would argue he has. And if they believe that there is a process for them to take that up. Thus far they haven’t really been able to go to the mat on that issue. http://www.askyourlawmaker.org/answers/i-used-be-six-years-chairman-subcommittee-constitution%2C-so-it%E2%80%99s-something-i-take-very-seriou Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:21:57 -0500 1154 at http://www.askyourlawmaker.org