Chellie Pingree
Chellie Pingree
Chellie Pingreeis an American politician. She is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Maine's 1st congressional district since 2009. The district includes most of the southern part of the state, including Portland and Augusta...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth2 April 1955
CountryUnited States of America
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The need to do something about global warming is obvious. And it's also pretty clear that the public understands the need for change and is ready to embrace it. What is missing is political will in Congress to stand up to the powerful energy companies and their well-paid lobbyists.
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Certainly, my advice is that communicating, lobbying, fundraising and engaging the public in policy and politics is far more exciting and inexpensive via the Internet. Old guard organizations like Common Cause had to evolve to embrace this new environment.
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Both of the parties' proposals fail to get at the heart of the problem, which is a complete lack of enforcement of the rules in Congress. Without credible enforcement, new rules are just more words.
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Breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktail parties to boot. The normal American citizen doesn't have that level of access or influence.
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The founding leaders of our country believed in a three-part sharing of governmental power, with each branch jealously watching the actions of the other two.
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People's mouse clicks decide what businesses, services, and content succeed. Users have equal access to tiny businesses with viral ideas and blue-chip companies, allowing these enterprises to compete on their own merits. It's how so many small start-ups have been able to become Internet success stories.
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It's crazy that the Constitution has to be amended to clarify what for the majority of Americans is a clear and true statement: corporations are not people.
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In my home state of Maine, we've seen out-of-state groups with anonymous donors spend millions of dollars to campaign against issues that don't fit their agenda.
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When I was in the Maine Senate and proposed Maine RX - a plan to lower prescription drug costs by forcing the pharmaceutical companies to negotiate - I was told by many people that it was too big an idea, and we couldn't overcome opposition from the drug companies.
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I'm always amazed how many politicians have a very unlikely story, and when I talk to groups of students, I remind them that not everybody who gets into politics is a lawyer or went to school to study it. We all come to it for different reasons.
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Net Neutrality - a guiding principle of the Internet since its beginning - means that content is all treated equally.
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As more and more people reach the Internet by mobile phone, we should make sure users are getting the open access they believe they're paying for.
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When I stood up to oppose an invasion of Iraq in 2002, it wasn't a popular thing to do.
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Our businesses can't create jobs when they're losing revenue, and the unemployed can't apply for jobs when they can't pay their phone bill.