Editing Question time (section)

==United States==
The [[United States]], which has a [[presidential system]] of government, does not have a question time for the [[President of the United States|president]]. However, Article II, Section 3 of the [[Constitution of the United States]] states: "[The president] shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The exact meaning of this clause has never been worked out fully, although it is the constitutional basis for the modern [[State of the Union]] address. There was some discussion at various times about whether this clause would allow something similar to a Westminster style question time – for instance, having Department Secretaries being questioned by the House of Representatives or the Senate – but the discussions on this issue have never gotten past an exploratory stage.

President [[George H.&nbsp;W. Bush]] once said of PMQs, "I count my blessings for the fact I don't have to go into that pit that [[John Major]] stands in, nose-to-nose with the opposition, all yelling at each other."<ref>{{cite news |url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oWEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=f4cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=730,1984147&dq=&hl=en |title = 1991 a year of mixed emotions, says Bush |agency = [[Associated Press]] |publisher = [[Tri City Heral]] |page = 59 |date = 23 December 1991 |access-date = 31 January 2010}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> In 2008, Senator [[John McCain]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] nominee for [[president of the United States]] in the [[2008 United States presidential election|2008 presidential election]]) stated [[Political positions of John McCain#President's question time|his intention]], if elected, to create a presidential equivalent of the [[United Kingdom|British]] conditional convention of [[Prime Minister's Questions]].<ref>{{cite news |title=If Presidents Faced Question Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01sun3.html |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=1 June 2008 |access-date=1 June 2008 }}</ref> In a policy speech on 15 May 2008, which outlined a number of ideas, McCain said, "I will ask [[United States Congress|Congress]] to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister of Great Britain]]{{Sic}} appears regularly before the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]."<ref>{{cite news|author=John McCain|author-link=John McCain|title=Text of McCain's Speech on First-Term Goals |url=http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/15/text_of_mccains_vision_of_2013.html |work=washingtonpost.com |date=15 May 2008 |access-date=1 June 2008 |quote=''I will ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the prime minister of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons''. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829175735/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/15/text_of_mccains_vision_of_2013.html |archive-date=29 August 2008 }}</ref>

[[George F. Will]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' criticized the proposal in an [[op-ed]] piece, saying that a presidential question time would endanger [[Separation of powers under the United States Constitution|separation of powers]] as the president of the United States, unlike the prime minister of the United Kingdom, is not a member of the legislature. Will ended the piece by saying, "Congress should remind a President McCain that the 16 blocks separating [[United States Capitol|the Capitol]] from the [[White House]] nicely express the nation's constitutional geography."<ref>{{cite news |author= George F. Will |author-link= George F. Will |title= McCain's Question Time|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052802917.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |publisher= washingtonpost.com |date=28 May 2008 |access-date=1 June 2008 }}</ref>

In February 2009, just over a month after his [[First inauguration of Barack Obama|inauguration]], [[President of the United States|President]] [[Barack Obama]] invited serving members of the [[United States Senate|US Senate]] to a "fiscal responsibility" summit at the [[White House]], during which Senators asked the president about his fiscal policies in an event which was compared to Prime Minister's Questions.<ref>{{cite news | first = Gloria | last = Borger | author-link =Gloria Borger |title=Borger: Q&A session showed Obama engaging opponents |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/borger.obama/index.html |work=[[CNN]] |quote=it was refreshing to watch an American president engage his opponents, much as a British prime minister does in his parliamentary question-and-answer sessions. |date=24 February 2009 |access-date=30 January 2010 }}</ref> Eleven months later, [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Minority leader of the United States House of Representatives|House Minority Leader]] [[John Boehner]] invited Obama to the annual House Issues Conference in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], where the president answered questions and criticisms from Republican members of Congress.<ref>{{YouTube|id = R5vOMIN673A |title = President Obama Full Q&A}}</ref> Commenting on the event, [[Peter Baker (author)|Peter Baker]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'', said "[the] back and forth resembled the British tradition where the prime minister submits to questions on the floor of the House of Commons – something Senator John McCain had promised to do if elected president."<ref>{{cite news | first = Peter | last = Baker | author-link =Peter Baker (author)|author2=Hulse, Carl |title=Off Script, Obama and the G.O.P. Vent Politely |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/us/politics/30obama.html |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=29 January 2010 |access-date=30 January 2010 }}</ref>