The White House Is Temporarily Shutting Down Its Petition Website (gizmodo.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: We The People, the petition section of the White House's website, is shutting down for a promised January relaunch. First launched in 2011 under then-President Obama, We The People pledged to provide a White House response to any petition which garnered 100,000 or more signatures within 30 days. The 200+ petitions that have received an official response have largely been unremarkable, leading to revelations like the White House's official beer recipe or condemnations (in word only) of groups like the Westboro Baptist Church. In short, the site has functioned as a PR tool for fostering good will -- one that the Trump administration has reportedly considered killing since April and now appears to be sluggishly getting around to putting in the ground.

"To improve this site's performance, the platform is currently down for maintenance and will return in late January," the site now reads. "All existing petitions and associated signatures have been preserved and will be available when the site is relaunched. Following the site's relaunch, petitions that have reached the required number of signatures will begin receiving responses." Further reading: The New York Times

Comments

Re:They don't want to get tax reform petitions

[LynnwoodRooster]

The Reagan tax cuts actually worked. Real Federal tax receipts increased by 28% in constant dollars. The problem is that Tip O'Neill and the rest of Congress raised spending by 36% in constant dollars. Federal income doubled, but spending more than doubled. That was the issue. GDP growth after the tax cuts returned to the historical 3.5-3.6% levels, rather than the 1.6% for the 1973-1982 timeframe. And the rich ended up shouldering even more of the Federal tax load, moving from 18% in 1981 to 28% of all Federal income taxes.