Politics and views in the United States.

Former President and humanitarian Jimmy Carter dies at age 100, extended funding for 9 11 responders is cut from the federal budget, and Republicans prepare a major overhaul of the nation's voting procedures.

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Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

All we need is a government that is good and decent and honest and truthful and open and compassionate and is filled with love as other American people.

I know it by heart.

And I believe if our government can measure up to the people, we can do that.

In 1977, then President Jimmy Carter told Americans the government should reflect the decency of the people.

Carter died Sunday at age 100.

The Georgia peanut farmer turned politician was known for his Nobel Prize winning humanitarian work as much as his single term in office.

Funding to extend the World Trade Center health program past 2027 was stripped from the federal budget this month as Congress scrambled to avert a shutdown.

President of the New York Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Jim Brozzi, says 9/11 responders shouldn't have to beg for help that was already promised.

To see that Congress would cut this out of all the spending that is done in DC is not only shameful, but insanely disappointing.

Some 130,000 people with 9/11 related illnesses rely on the program for financial aid.

Republicans in Congress say they plan to overhaul how the nation votes, requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship.

Wisconsin Congressman Brian Stile says changes are needed to restore public confidence.

When voters are more confident their ballot will count and not be canceled out by someone else's ballots, they're more likely to participate.

We see the data time and time again on that.

For months, Republicans claimed non-citizen voting would tip the presidential election to Democrats, but Kansas, one of the first states to require proof of citizenship, has stopped enforcing that rule because it blocked tens of thousands of legitimate voters.

President-elect Donald Trump won the election with one of the smallest ever popular vote margins, but new data show that in counties lacking a local news outlet, it was a landslide.

Rebecca Schneider with the Maryland-Delaware District of Columbia Press Association says a decline in ad revenue has closed thousands of local publications.

The price of a print ad is really dollars.

The price of a digital ad is cents, and you cannot produce the quality journalism that democracy needs on cents.

130 newspapers shut down in the past year, almost 2 1/2 per week.

Polarization, used to describe current US politics, is Merriam-Webster's word of the year.

University of New Mexico political science professor Jessica Fezzel says many media outlets and political groups draw attention and get money by focusing just on the extremes.

People tend to vote out of fear and hatred more than they do out of support and joy, and I think the American public is tiring of this level of hostility.

I'm Catherine Carley for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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