Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Rep. Sean Casten2023-05-31T16:00:00-05:00https://chicago.suntimes.com/authors/rep-sean-casten/rss2023-05-31T16:00:00-05:002023-05-31T14:56:37-05:00Debt limit crisis: It’s time for legislation to end the threat of default
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<img class="Image" alt="President Joe Biden meets with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., to discuss the debt limit in the Oval Office of the White House on May 22." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8c0e65e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/7045x3954+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FCHN0s9V8uB-hd4OCYnIkWNVa48A%3D%2F0x0%3A7045x4697%2F7045x4697%2Ffilters%3Afocal%285718x1424%3A5719x1425%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24694487%2Fmerlin_113703613.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/27831ec/2147483647/strip/true/crop/7045x3954+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FCHN0s9V8uB-hd4OCYnIkWNVa48A%3D%2F0x0%3A7045x4697%2F7045x4697%2Ffilters%3Afocal%285718x1424%3A5719x1425%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24694487%2Fmerlin_113703613.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>President Joe Biden meets with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., to discuss the debt limit in the Oval Office of the White House on May 22.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Alex Brandon/AP Photos</p></div></div>
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<p>I’d like you to imagine for a moment that you decide you’d no longer like to pay your mortgage. To be clear, this is not a matter of means or ability — for the sake of this hypothetical, you have the financial resources to make your payments. You simply don’t want to.</p><p>And so you call your bank and share the good news. You inform them that, while you may have previously agreed to your mortgage and promised to make your payments on time, you would not be doing so moving forward.</p><p>What do you think would be their response? </p><p>When you hear talk of the United States government reaching its debt limit, the scenario described above is, in essence, what’s happening. We have passed laws agreeing to spend certain amounts of money, but now we’re calling our bank to say we will no longer pay.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-150000" name="module-150000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Opinion bug</div>
<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h2>Opinion</h2></div>
</div><p>Historically, raising the debt limit has been bipartisan. We’ve done so <a class="Link" href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gop-debt-ceiling-trump-presidency/" target="_blank" >78 times</a> since 1960, including three times during the Trump Administration. However, when a Democratic president is paired with a Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, recent history has shown the latter eager to use the debt limit as a political tool to damage their executive branch counterpart.</p><p>Current Speaker Kevin McCarthy has kindly offered to prevent a global economic catastrophe in exchange for American-focused devastation. To lift the debt limit, he has asked Congress to pass problematic legislation that would see <a class="Link" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Illinois.pdf" target="_blank" >13,500 Illinois kids</a> lose access to preschool, strip food assistance for <a class="Link" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Illinois.pdf" target="_blank" >56,000 Illinois women and children</a>, and threaten health insurance for <a class="Link" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Illinois.pdf" target="_blank" >1,427,000 Illinoisans</a>.</p><p>In other words, returning to our earlier metaphor, after being told that you face eviction if you fail to make payments, you propose a counter-offer. You’ll pay your mortgage, but only if your family stops using hot water for showers and stops going to the doctor.</p><p>If we do not raise the debt limit, the United States will default, causing global financial ruin. Interest rates would skyrocket. Americans’ hard-earned retirement savings would vanish. The average cost of a 30-year mortgage would <a class="Link" href="https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-dominoes-of-debt-limit-default" target="_blank" >increase by $130,000</a>. Prices will rise for everyone and on everything.</p><p>The United States and Denmark are the <a class="Link" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/24/the-us-isnt-the-only-country-with-a-debt-ceiling-heres-how-denmark-avoids-the-drama.html" target="_blank" >only countries in the world</a> that have a debt limit set at a fixed nominal figure. The best thing we can do to avert this manufactured crisis — and to prevent the debt limit from being used as a political weapon in the future — is to get rid of it entirely. Congress already authorizes all spending and revenues. We should not have the right to choose to not pay our bills when the former exceeds the latter.</p><p>I have co-sponsored a bill, the <a class="Link" href="https://foster.house.gov/media/press-releases/foster-introduces-legislation-repeal-debt-ceiling" target="_blank" >End the Threat of Default Act</a>, led by Rep. Bill Foster of Illinois’ 11th Congressional District, which would do just that. </p><p>Until we pass this legislation, House Republicans will continue to use the debt limit to gain policy concessions they could not achieve through democratic means. And we’re all worse off for it.</p><p><i>Sean Casten is the U.S. representative from Illinois’ 6th Congressional District.</i></p><p><i>The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. </i><a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/pages/submitting-op-eds-and-letters" target="_blank" ><i>See our guidelines</i></a><i>.</i></p><p><i>The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Sun-Times or any of its affiliates.</i></p><p></p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/5/31/23744376/debt-limit-crisis-legislation-republican-speaker-mccarthy-president-biden-sean-casten-op-edRep. Sean Casten2023-03-20T09:45:00-05:002023-03-20T09:26:34-05:00Our democracy is broken. Here’s how we can fix It
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<img class="Image" alt="People walk outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on June 9, 2022. " srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f002a99/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5958x3344+0+22/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FMB43oHRISj7NtS22430qDHL9rdI%3D%2F0x0%3A5958x3972%2F5958x3972%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282486x1694%3A2487x1695%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24510141%2FCongress_Insurance_Data_Breach.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e832c2d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5958x3344+0+22/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FMB43oHRISj7NtS22430qDHL9rdI%3D%2F0x0%3A5958x3972%2F5958x3972%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282486x1694%3A2487x1695%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24510141%2FCongress_Insurance_Data_Breach.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>People walk outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on June 9, 2022. </p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Patrick Semansky/AP Photos</p></div></div>
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<p>Why can’t our government do things that are overwhelmingly popular?</p><p>How many times have you asked, or heard someone ask, that question?</p><p>The simplistic answer is some form of individual failure. Corruption, dishonesty, ego — you know the list.</p><p>But there is a bigger reason that doesn’t get acknowledged enough: because our Founding Fathers didn’t really trust the will of the majority.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-cf0000" name="module-cf0000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Opinion bug</div>
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</div><p>They didn’t believe people could be trusted with the direct election of the president, so they created the Electoral College. They appeased state delegations by creating a Senate to make the will of the states superior to the will of the people. They created a Supreme Court with the power to overturn public will, but without any accountability to that public.</p><p>Our founders did this because democracy — then and now — is a messy business. It solves for the possible, not the perfect. The Constitution is the thing that emerged to get 13 colonies to agree to cede power to a central, United States government. And so we have operated over these past 233 years with counter-majoritarian biases baked into our institutions.</p><p>Consider for a moment what our country would look like if the last two decades were governed by majority rule. </p><p>First, I would like to introduce you to President Al Gore, followed not too long after by President Hillary Clinton — both winners of the popular vote.</p><p>With those two presidents, the Supreme Court would look dramatically different. </p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-d50000" name="module-d50000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Opinion Newsletter</div>
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</div><p>How many American lives would have been spared from gun violence if Al Gore had appointed the replacements for Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor prior to the District of Columbia v. Heller decision on an individual’s right to bear arms? How would our elections have changed if a different set of justices reviewed the Citizens United decision? Would the Dobbs case have led to the stripping of reproductive rights away from 167 million American women if the successors to Scalia, Ginsburg and Kennedy were appointed by President Hillary Clinton?</p><p>Or we can go further back. In 1922, the House passed legislation to make lynching a federal crime. The bill would be passed again and again through the subsequent decades, repeatedly shut down in the anti-majoritarian Senate by the anti-majoritarian filibuster. The Senate finally passed that bill last year. Not because public opinion on lynching changed, but because it took a century for the Senate to carry out the public will.</p><p>Here are three steps we can take to fix our anti-majoritarian institutions.</p><p>First, I’ve introduced a constitutional amendment to add 12 national at-large senators, to be elected via ranked choice voting. This creates a bloc of senators directly accountable to the will of the American people. The bill would also add 12 national electors to the Electoral College who would vote based on the national popular vote to reduce the odds of the winner of the popular vote losing in the College. </p><p>Second, I’ve introduced legislation to expand the House of Representatives by requiring that future increases in population require an increase in representatives. For context, the population of the United States has increased by roughly 3½ times since the House was last expanded in 1911, meaning the population of congressional districts have increased similarly.</p><p>Had this proposal been in force during the 2020 census, we would have added roughly 130 members to the House.</p><p>Finally, we need to realign the Supreme Court to its original Article III responsibilities.</p><p>Article III of the Constitution outlines that the court is responsible for matters relating to ambassadors, those in which the State is a party, and in such appellate jurisdictions as allowed by Congress.</p><p>In recent years, we have seen an intentional effort by groups whose interests are opposed to the public will to take control of the courts.</p><p>Congress can fix this by asserting its authority under Article III to limit the Supreme Court’s appellate power. I’ve introduced a bill to do that and shift the bulk of our appellate decisions to a 13-judge panel, selected at random from our nation’s circuit courts. </p><p>President Barack Obama once told me that this job is not a sprint. It’s a relay race. Our job is to take the baton from our predecessor and then put every bit of effort into gaining ground on the field, so that we can hand it off to our successor with our office and our nation in a slightly better position than we found ourselves in during our brief time in public service.</p><p>We aren’t perfect, but progress is possible. Our defects aren’t sources of shame — they are opportunities to improve. We have the baton. Let’s seize the opportunity.</p><p><i>Sean Casten is the U.S. representative from Illinois 6th congressional district.</i></p><p><i>The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. </i><a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/pages/submitting-op-eds-and-letters" target="_blank" ><i>See our guidelines</i></a><i>.</i></p><p><i>The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Sun-Times or any of its affiliates.</i></p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/3/20/23641558/democracy-broken-senate-house-representatives-supreme-court-sean-casten-op-edRep. Sean Casten2022-08-01T16:00:00-05:002022-08-01T20:36:34-05:00Congress must pass these gun violence prevention bills, now
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<img class="Image" alt="Ashbey Beasley, who survived the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, speaks about gun legislation during a press conference on July 27 in Washington, DC." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ccb65e9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5500x3087+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FdwtdCqFLotlC8ahg5X7lrXTJpI8%3D%2F0x0%3A5500x3667%2F5500x3667%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282947x819%3A2948x820%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23915319%2F1242148989.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c607357/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5500x3087+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FdwtdCqFLotlC8ahg5X7lrXTJpI8%3D%2F0x0%3A5500x3667%2F5500x3667%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282947x819%3A2948x820%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23915319%2F1242148989.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Ashbey Beasley, who survived the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, speaks about gun legislation during a press conference on July 27 in Washington, DC. </p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Anna Rose Layden/Getty</p></div></div>
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<p>Strollers abandoned, parents hiding children in dumpsters, flags covered in blood.</p><p>Over the July 4th holiday weekend, more than 220 were gunned down and killed in the United States, including the shooting at the Highland Park parade that sent shockwaves throughout the country. This heartbreaking carnage is unique to America — but we can end it if we turn our anger into comprehensive federal gun violence prevention.</p><p>We have the majority of gun violence prevention bills we need written and ready to go — if only we could act.</p><p>If 50% of all of the guns in the U.S. disappeared overnight, we would still have more guns per capita than any other country in the world. To decrease this, we need to pass the Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act introduced by U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., which would remove firearms from circulation by incentivizing people to sell back their firearms through local programs funded by federal grants.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-130000" name="module-130000"></a>
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</div><p>We’ve also got to do something about the type of guns that cause the most carnage in the shortest amount of time: assault rifles. These weapons killed 60 people in Las Vegas, 26 in Sandy Hook and seven in Highland Park. Any gun that can shoot dozens of people in less than a minute is a weapon of war and should not be available for civilian use. The Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 worked, and the U.S. House has reinstated it. Now it’s up to the Senate.</p><h5>Red flags, background checks</h5><p>An <a class="Link" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/harvard-political-review/vast-majority-americans-support-universal-background-checks__;!!Bg5easoyC-OII2vlEqY8mTBrtW-N4OJKAQ!YYUmWVMr57pgpL59PiRh6kV5tKPu133gCjzrBbtiTaxU7sOhiZ-MhpK31jHrDR40lctGzoxVjw$" target="_blank" >overwhelming majority</a> of Americans agree we’ve got to get guns out of the hands of the most dangerous. That’s why, after the U.S. averaged at least <a class="Link" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/abcnews.go.com/US/2018-mass-shooting-month-us/story?id=59418185__;!!Bg5easoyC-OII2vlEqY8mTBrtW-N4OJKAQ!YYUmWVMr57pgpL59PiRh6kV5tKPu133gCjzrBbtiTaxU7sOhiZ-MhpK31jHrDR40lcu4dbplVA$" target="_blank" >1 deadly mass shooting a month</a> in 2018, House Democrats passed legislation supported by 90% of Americans that would establish universal background checks and increase the time a federal firearms licensee must wait while a background check is conducted, closing the loophole that enabled a gunman to obtain the weapon used to murder nine people during a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina.</p><p>But, because 90% of guns involved in crimes are not from retail stores, background checks are far from enough to keep guns out of the hands of the most dangerous. That’s why, after guns killed 10 grocery store shoppers in Buffalo and 21 elementary school children and teachers in Uvalde, the House passed the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, a life-saving red flag law supported by over 70% of Americans to temporarily remove access to firearms for those deemed a danger to themselves or others by a federal court.</p><p>Domestic violence gun homicides have leaped <a class="Link" href="https://revealnews.org/when-abusers-keep-their-guns/" target="_blank" >58%</a> over the last decade, with over half of all intimate partner homicides currently committed with guns. Domestic violence is among the strongest predictors of mass shootings. To end this deadly correlation, the House and the Senate must pass the No Guns for Abusers Act of 2021. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., this authorizes the DOJ to make grants for state and local governments to remove firearms from those charged with or convicted of domestic violence.</p><h5>Helping police, holding gun makers accountable</h5><p>We must help law enforcement do their jobs to keep our children and families safe from heavily armed civilians. That means we’ve got to pass U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s, D-Calif. Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act to allow the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to collect, preserve and disclose gun records and tracing data necessary to properly investigate and prevent gun violence to make our communities safer.</p><p>It also means giving law enforcement the tools to crack down on gun trafficking and hold irresponsible gun dealers accountable, especially in states like Illinois, where guns trafficked in from across state lines comprise two-thirds of the total number of illegally possessed crime guns. To stop the flow of crime guns, we’ve got to pass into law my Gun Trafficker Detection Act, which would require gun owners to report if their gun is lost or stolen within 48 hours, along with U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly’s, D-Ill., House-passed Prevent Gun Trafficking Act, which establishes a stand-alone federal criminal offense for gun trafficking and straw purchasing.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-170000" name="module-170000"></a>
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</div><p>Despite the mountain of evidence that mass shootings are getting <a class="Link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/06/us-mass-shootings-deadlier-more-common" target="_blank" >deadlier and more common</a>, a law passed in 2005 still gives the gun industry exclusive immunity from being sued for negligence or product liability in nearly all cases. We need to crack down on reckless gun dealers and manufacturers by passing U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff’s, D-Calif., Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act to repeal their liability shield.</p><p>Aside from being both necessary to save lives from gun violence and supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans, what each of the actions I just laid out have in common is they will not become law without the U.S. Senate stepping up to do its job. </p><p>After Uvalde and Buffalo, I read the names of the 665 children 11-years-old and younger harmed by guns so far this year. So many children that I wasn’t even able to make it through the first page. Today that <a class="Link" href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/children-killed" target="_blank" >number</a> is 850.</p><p>How many lives will it take before Congress has the courage to act?</p><p><i>Sean Casten is the U.S. representative from Illinois’ 6th Congressional District. </i></p><p><i>The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. </i><a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/pages/submitting-op-eds-and-letters" target="_blank" ><i>See our guidelines.</i></a></p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/8/1/23287275/gun-violence-prevention-legislation-congress-highland-park-senate-sean-casten-op-edRep. Sean Casten