A visit of friendship (closed/Attn Fatatatutti)

[Fatatatutti]

"And about the Cabinet, also if I may mister President, the President chooses his own Cabinet as well, but that are mostly people with knowledge on a special subject or matter, like justice, aggriculture etc.."

"Yes, I see. We like to have our Cabinet members responsible to the people, not just to the Prime Minister. But I can see the advantage of having Cabinet Ministers who know what they're doing. We try to choose the best ones that we can, but we have a smaller pool to draw from than you do, only Members of Parliament."

" And during Presidential elections the President chooses a "Runningmate" and if the President wins the election the runningmate will become Vice-President and I'm actually second in line to become President if something happens to to the President, and I'm chosen by my fellow members of the House of Representatives, because I'm actually also just a member of the house who represents her district but as you might know a House needs a chairman to lead the debate otherwise it would become a mess." Nancy walker laughed.

"If something happens to me, there's no automatic replacement. Parliament would choose a new Prime Minister, just as they would if they lost confidence in me. We do have a Speaker too but I'm afraid it becomes quite a mess sometimes anyway.

"And on top of that, since we meet outside, anybody who's passing by might have something to say too. It would be considered impolite to interrupt somebody else, but not everybody is polite all of the time."

"And well it has multiple other duties as well, and if I understood you well your Cabinet makes legislation as well? Because we really have a strict seperation due the "Trias Politica". The House and the Senate makes legislation and this passes to the President who has to sign new laws, although he might veto them if it's against his policy."

"Usually, the Cabinet will suggest legislation. They can do that because they're representatives of the people. Or sometimes even a citizen makes a suggestion. Then a committee will draft the actual bill and the whole Parliament will discuss it and suggest ammendments. Eventually, if the bill is passed, it becomes law. Ordinarily, the President would sign it but he or she has no power of veto. Since we don't have a President, usually the Speaker and I sign it on behalf of Parliament."

"Further the President is also the Commander in Chieff, which is really meaning that he is the Head of the Noordeinde Armed Forces."

"Ah, well our defense system seems chaotic compared to yours too. The Minister of Defense controls the armed forces, but I could fire him or her, I suppose. My daughter Harmony was Minister of Defense at one time, but not when I was Prime Minister."

[Noordeinde]

"I see." Said Speaker of the House Nancy Walker.

"And now mister Prime Minister we arrived at the chamber of the House of Representatives, and as I just told you, the House has 435 members, each member representing his or hers electorial district. And every year the State of the Union is held here by the President in a joint session of Congress, meaning that both the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate gather here to listen to the President about his plans for the next year."

Congress during the joint session at the State of the Union.

[Fatatatutti]

"I like the idea about the Statue of the Union," the Prime Minister said. "Traditionally, the Prime Minister broadcasts greetings to the people at New Years. Individual Members of Parliament do that too in their own constituencies. Maybe we should include a little information about what we plan to do in the next year."

[Noordeinde]

"That might be a good idear sir, but first let's move on to the Chamber of the Senate, and afther that we arranged a meeting with the Senate commitee on foreign affairs."

The group walked a couple of minutes through the beautifull marble halls which were decorated with a lot of portraits of former members of Congress and other important people. Then they arrived at the Chamer of the Senate.

"Well Mister Prime Minister, this is the chamber of the Senate, as I told you before Noordeinde has 50 states and each state has 2 Senators represented in this Chamer, so as you might have noticed the Senate exists out of 100 members, the Chairman of the Senate is the Vice-President and he conducts the debates and if we have a ty during votings the Vice-President has a vote as well to make the difference, but this happens not to often."

A photo portrait of the Senate with all it's current Senators.

[Fatatatutti]

"So the Senate represents state interests while the House of Representatives represents the individual interests of the people? Interesting."

[Noordeinde]

"So the Senate represents state interests while the House of Representatives represents the individual interests of the people? Interesting."

"Well the House of Representatives represent the 435 electorial districts, so that's indeed closer to the people then the Senate. To give an example a member of the House of Represenatatives might represent his hometown while a Senator represents the whole state in the Senate."

"And let's say if a member of the House commes up with a proposal to improve something in his district and it passes in the House of Representatives, the proposal will be passed over to the Senate who will have to give the final approval."

"And as is said before a the two Senators represent their whole state instead of just a little district, so as you might have noticed the Senators have more power then a member of the House, butt they actually quite do the same job only the Senate talks about the seperate states while the House of Representatives talks more about each district seperatly."

[Fatatatutti]

"So the Senators look at the same issues but in a different way, I suppose. I know we have a problem with individual Members of Parliament focusing on their own local issues. Some local issues might go unaddressed because other Members don't have an interest in them.

"I can see the value of another House with a different perspective. But, of course, changing our whole constitution wouldn't be very practical.

"You see, our system is really just an extension of the old tribal council system. The elders would make decisions for the tribe and the 'chief' was chosen by the elders to administer their decisions. Today, we have councils in each local community and we have the 'Big Council', Parliament, for the whole island. But we don't have anything in between, like states. I don't know how we would divide up a senate and decide who they represented."

[Noordeinde]

"Allright, wel Noordeinde cities have city councils as well, and they have jurisdiction over their town. But a city council can't arrange everything, like something that is on a national level. Therefore we splitted up the country in 435 voting districts. And every district chooses it's own representative in the House, and he or she will represent his or her district on a national level."

"And what the Senators actually do is represent their states in the Senate, and the Senate discusses more important subjects then the House, because the the districts are smaller and lay in the States, and the States lay in the country, so a Senator has more power then a member of the House although they do the same but on different levels."

"And I have a good example to show you the difference between the level of State and Electorial District, a while ago we had a Member of the House of Representatives from one of the mountain area's in Noordeinde. He represented one of the smaller electorial districts and in his district they had a guard station of the army, equiped with an old rescue helicopter for rescue missions in that mountain area, but this Helicopter was becomming older and older and it needed to be replaced. So the Representative requested a new helicopter to replace the old one in his district."

"So as you might understand now that helicopter was important for that district but not for the whole state, so these more "little" subjects are handled by the House of Representatives and the more important and big issues which have to do with the whole state are being handled by the Senators in the Senate."

[Fatatatutti]

"Your system seems to be well thought out and it seems to work well. Ours is really just an extension of what we've always had, but it seems to work well too. There's more than one way to get to the same goal."

[Noordeinde]

"indeed sir, indeed, I couldn't agree more with you." Nancy Walker said. Then the President turned over to the Chief of Staff. "Jim, do we still have time to speak with the committee on foreign affairs or not?"

Chief of Staff of the President Jim Kennedy responded. "Well sir I just spoke with the Chairman of the comittee but they are very bussy with a subject, but we can speak with seperate members during the brake of the debate."

President Roosevelt turned to Prime Minister Chang. "Well sir we can't speak with the whole committee on foreign affairs, but we can speak with multiple members of the House committee on foreign affairs during the brake, I hope that isn't a problem with you?"

(ooc: I edited my last post with an example of the difference between issues which are being handled by the House of Representatives and which are handled by the Senate)

[Fatatatutti]

"I think our system is more centralized than yours. You have a whole level of government, the state level, that we don't have. In the case of the rescue helicopter, we have a nation-wide system of search and rescue. The local Member of Parliament might call our attention to the fact that his district was not being served adequtely but it would be up to the Parliament to decide where specific resources should be allocated.

"But of course, we have enough to do without spending too much time on changing the system, don't we?"

President Roosevelt turned to Prime Minister Chang. "Well sir we can't speak with the whole committee on foreign affairs, but we can speak with multiple members of the House committee on foreign affairs during the brake, I hope that isn't a problem with you?"

"I'm just happy to speak to any of your people. Please don't let them neglect their work on my account."

[Noordeinde]

A couple of minutes later member of the House of Representatives John Miller walked along the group, Speaker of the House Nancy Walker made a quick run to him to get him back.

"John, John, I would like to introduce you to the Fatatatuttian Prime Minister, Sir Mickey Chang, and his familly, as you know he's on a state visit in our country and he would like to speak to several members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and I actualy used your request about the helicopter to explain the differences between Senate and the House do you have some time now?."

Representative John Miller responded enthousiastic.

"Hello Sir how verry nice to meet you, I hope you like Congress so far and I heard the Speaker used my district's request for a new rescue helicopter to explain what the differnces between the House and Senate are?"

[Fatatatutti]

Representative John Miller responded enthousiastic.

"Hello Sir how verry nice to meet you, I hope you like Congress so far and I heard the Speaker used my district's request for a new rescue helicopter to explain what the differnces between the House and Senate are?"

"I'm pleased to meet you too. Yes, the intricacies can be a bit confusing. I think I'm doing well to understand how my own system works.

"As I understand it, your job is much the same as our Members of Parliament but we don't seem to have any equivalent to your Senate. I don't know of anything that we're missing because of the lack of a Senate. I think all of the work is getting done.

"So, how many people do you represent?"

[Noordeinde]

" In my district is just one town and that's my hometown, and approximately 3500 people live there, and I represent each and everyone of them."

"But I heard you were a bit confused about the helicopter story. Well the Department of Defense is responsible for everything in and around search and rescue equipment and operations together with the Department of Homeland Security."

" But our country has almost 500 million inhabitants and has quite a lot these guard stations throughout the country. And inspecting all of them would cost years and if you finnaly finished you can start all over again, so if the militairy in my district request me to get them a new helicopter because they have problems with the old one I will propose it and will discuss it with the House Committee on Defense, and if it passes Congress ( meaning the House and the Senate) the Senate Chairman of the committee on Defens will inform the Cabinet who will deliver a new helicopter."

"And this way we discuss al sorts of subject." Representative Miller said.

[Fatatatutti]

"Well, Fatatatutti has a population of over six billion and we have about 600 Members of Parliament, so that's about ten million people for each of us to represent, I guess. We can't represent each one as thoroughly as we might like to, but enlarging Parliament doesn't seem to be the answer either. You know well enough how difficult it can be to get 600 people together in one place at the same time to vote on an issue.

"We're trying to take advantage of the new communication methods. People can telephone or email their Member. Now we need a big staff just to answer the phones and read the emails and try to classify everybody's problems into categories for us poor Members to think about.

"But now that I think of it, we could use the same communication methods to bring a lot more representatives together too, not in one place but on the Internet. I'll have to mention that idea to some of our bright young minds and see what they think of it.

"Your method of procuring helicopters and such isn't so different from ours, I suppose. In general, Parliament doesn't decide on individual helicopters though. The armed forces decide how many new helicopters they need and where to station them. The idea is to overlap the older and newer equipment as much as possible, so in case of a breakdown there should be other equipment nearby that can substitute.

"My daughter knows more about that than I do. She used to be Defense Minister. But I don't know where she's gotten off to. The last I saw her, she was looking at some of the artworks with Choo-Choo."

[Noordeinde]

"Well normally we discuss it in indeed the same way, we discuss about to buy a new fleet of helicopters and not specificaly one helicopter. But if the National Guard of my home State, which is stationed in my District in that guard house, has problems with the old helicopter and it needs to be replaced I will ask it in favor of them and my district."

"But it was the first and the last time I hope that I ever have to propose something at the House Commitee on Defense because I'm actually a member of the House Commitee on Taxation. We actually have two jobs as representatives, first we represent our district and second all members of the House are member of at least one committee on a specific object."

"So in your first duty as representative you sometimes have to discuss with other committees to get something done next to your second duty as member on a committee."

"I have one question." Speaker of the House Nancy Walker said.

"You would like to gather your parliament via internet, bus isn't that very sensative for fraud or other techinical errors?"

[Fatatatutti]

"Yes, we do everything by committee too. If a member has an idea for new legislation, he or she takes it to the appropriate committee and they discuss it. Then they usually discuss it with the Cabinet to see if it has a chance of being passed. Then the Cabinet asks the committee to prepare a draft bill and the draft is discussed and amended by Parliament as a whole.

"The same applies to amending existing legislation, of course. The specifics are always done by committees.

"As Prime Minister, of course, I don't have to serve on committees very often."

"I have one question." Speaker of the House Nancy Walker said.

"You would like to gather your parliament via internet, bus isn't that very sensative for fraud or other techinical errors?"

"Yes, that would be a problem. I don't know how practical it would be for official voting. But banking and a lot of other business is done on the Internet, through PIN numbers and so on, so I don't think the problem is insurmountable.

"And in the meantime, the Internet is useful for committee work, which the congressman and I have been discussing."

[Noordeinde]

"That's true" Speaker of the House Nancy Walker said.

"Well Mister Prime Minister it was very nice to meet you, but I really have to go now, I'm already a bit late in my own committee, the committee on Taxation, So goodbye, and have a great time during your stay in Noordeinde" Representative Miller said.

Jim Kennedy, the Chief of Staff of the President, approached Nancy Walker and the President.

"M'am, Sir we have quite a tight schedule as you might know, so we really have to leave now."

The Group walked towards the Main Hall for the official photo and to say goodbye. Afther the photo was taken Nancy Walker approached Prime Minister Chang and his familly.

"Sir it was a great honor for me to have you here, I hope you will have a great time during the rest of your stay and I hope to see all of you maybe in the future again in Noordeinde because your great friends of our country."

[Fatatatutti]

"Well Mister Prime Minister it was very nice to meet you, but I really have to go now, I'm already a bit late in my own committee, the committee on Taxation, So goodbye, and have a great time during your stay in Noordeinde" Representative Miller said.

"By all means, you must put your own work first. Taxes are the life-blood of any nation, after all.

"Thank you for taking the time out to talk to me. It's been very enlightening."

Jim Kennedy, the Chief of Staff of the President, approached Nancy Walker and the President.

"M'am, Sir we have quite a tight schedule as you might know, so we really have to leave now."

"Well, this is perfect timing," the Prime Minister smiled. "Here comes my entourage."

Choo-Choo looked up at Nancy Walker and said, "You have a picture the same colour as my shirt. My brother's girlfriend gave me this shirt because it doesn't fit her any more. My brother has a girlfriend but my sister doesn't have a boyfriend. My other sister has a boyfriend. They live in the same house and they sleep in the same bed and they're going to have babies and I'm going to babysit the babies."

Harmony smiled and raised her eyebrows. "We've been exploring. We've met a lot of security guards."

"They're all very polite," Shoshone said. "I've been kicked out of much worse places than this."

"Please forgive my children," the Prime Minister said, still smiling. "They always behave like they're at home."

The Group walked towards the Main Hall for the official photo and to say goodbye. Afther the photo was taken Nancy Walker approached Prime Minister Chang and his familly.

"Sir it was a great honor for me to have you here, I hope you will have a great time during the rest of your stay and I hope to see all of you maybe in the future again in Noordeinde because your great friends of our country."

"Yes, the trip is going by so fast that I am thinking it would be nice to come back again sometime.

"You must also come and visit our humble coconut grove."

[Noordeinde]

"I would be honored sir to visit your parliament when I have the time to do so, and it's good to hear that your children had a good time while visiting Congress, and Choo-Choo I think your the perfect one to babysit the babies when they come" Nancy Walker smiled.

After saying goodbye and the photo was taken the group, under conduction of the Noordeinde Secret Service, left the building of Congress.

The group walked down the stairs to the waiting motorcade. Chief of staff Jim Kennedy accompannied the Prime Minister to the Lincoln Continental Limousine.

The Lincoln Continental Limousine

While the President and the first Lady stepped into the Presidential Cadillac DTS Limousine

The Presidential Cadillac DTS Limousine

Afther both the President and the first Lady and the Prime Minister and the Chang familly were onboard of their vehicles the Chief of Staff stepped into one of the Secret Service cars and the motorcade drove away from the Congress Building.

After a short 10 minute drive the motorcade arrived at the Department of Treasury.

The Department of Treasury

On the stairs of the building on a red carpet the Secretary of Treasury waited to welcome his guests. The motorcade stopped and personnel from the Secret Service stepped out of their vehicles first to secure the area and to open the door for the dignitaries.

The doors were opened and the President and the first Lady stepped out of the Limousine and walked to the opened door of the Limousine with Prime Minister Chang to accompanny him while walking to the waiting Secretary of Treasury.

[Fatatatutti]

The Department of Treasury

On the stairs of the building on a red carpet the Secretary of Treasury waited to welcome his guests. The motorcade stopped and personnel from the Secret Service stepped out of their vehicles first to secure the area and to open the door for the dignitaries.

The doors were opened and the President and the first Lady stepped out of the Limousine and walked to the opened door of the Limousine with Prime Minister Chang to accompanny him while walking to the waiting Secretary of Treasury.

"Is this where they make the money?" Choo-Choo asked.

"I think that's part of what they do," Harmony smiled, "but I don't know if we'll get to see that. They also collect taxes and help the government decide how to spend the money."

"I always look in the couch for money," Choo-Choo said. "There wasn't any at the hotel."

[Noordeinde]

The group walked to the Secretary of Treasury Adam Johnson.

"Hey John how are you doing, I like to introduce you to the Prime Minister of Fatatatutti, Mickey Chang and his familly and their good friend Choo-Choo" President Roosevelt said.

First he greeted Jenny Roosevelt, before he would forget her, and then turned over to Prime Minister Chang.

"Hello Sir, good to meet you and your familly and welcome at the Department of Treasury, I hope that we might have a thriving discussion about the economy and investing money into a good network of trade between our countries, and I heard you will meet with the Secretary of Commerce at his Department as well so I thought we can discuss the investements here and abouth which goods and products with the Secreatry of Commerce, before I "steal" his subject.

Secretary of Treasury Adam Johnson smiled.

[Fatatatutti]

"Hello Sir, good to meet you and your familly and welcome at the Department of Treasury, I hope that we might have a thriving discussion about the economy and investing money into a good network of trade between our countries, and I heard you will meet with the Secretary of Commerce at his Department as well so I thought we can discuss the investements here and abouth which goods and products with the Secreatry of Commerce, before I "steal" his subject.

Secretary of Treasury Adam Johnson smiled.

"Good day, sir," the Prime Minister smiled. "I should warn you right from the beginning that I am a communist. I hope you haven't been misinformed about communism like so many other people have. We have no particular aversion to money. Our government has to handle money the same way yours does.

"We do believe that all wealth stems from the work of the people and that that fact should be reflected in economic policy. For example, we believe that the workers in a factory should control that factory, much like any other shareholders do. The only difference is that the workers are not just sitting aloof in an ivory tower collecting their profits. They have a hands-on interest in the factory.

"Now, we don't force our beliefs on anybody and we haven't converted all of Fatatatutti to worker control. I doubt that we ever will. But when we talk about investment, we'll be talking about investment by the workers."

[Noordeinde]

"Well don't worry sir I do absolutely understand and respect your point. And although Noordeinde has a free market economy we still have control, because we as well believe that everyone should have profit of the free-market and not only the higher executives. And that the workers are very important as well, so were not 100% libertial on the free-market because we as well want our workers to be protected"Secretary of Treasury Adam Johnson said.

"I guess we should go inside Adam, I see al those Secret Service special agents becomming more and more nervous." President Roosevelt smiled.

"I think that's a better plan indeed then immediatley beginning negotiations on the street. Well please follow me ladies and gentlement so thst I can show my workplace." Adam Johnson said.

[Fatatatutti]

"I guess we should go inside Adam, I see al those Secret Service special agents becomming more and more nervous." President Roosevelt smiled.

"I think that's a better plan indeed then immediatley beginning negotiations on the street. Well please follow me ladies and gentlement so thst I can show my workplace." Adam Johnson said.

"Bodyguards are always nervous," the Prime Minister said. "That's one reason why I don't have any.

"I've never been shot at in Fatatatutti in all these years. It wouldn't do to set a precedent here, would it? We don't want to cause any embarassment to our hosts."