I agree. I have often thought such sessions would be good for American democracy. Probably will never happen, though.
One problem is, Congress would need someone like the Parliamentary Speaker of the House--not like the Soeaker of the House in Congress, but an impartial person who keeps order and has the power to remove members from the floor as was done in the clip here. The pariamentary speaker does not engage in the political debates at all, but is there solely to keep order and make sure the rules are followed by everyone, regardless of his or her party or position in a debate. If Congress were to have si ilar "question time" sessions, the parliamentary speaker would need another name because he or she is nothing like our Speaker of the House who is anything but impartial and wields power for his own party--and who needs someone to impose order on him as much as anyone.
There are many reasons a parliamentary system would be better for the United States than the mish-mash we have in Congress, where no one seems to be in charge of order and individual power is everything.
I don't see it happening, though. Congress itself would never allow it because it tends to reduce the power of Congressional members, and in the US, power is all that matters.
Lois
It's a great concept but it doesn't always work, our last Speaker of the House under the Harper conservative government was a joke, the government went out of its way to not answer any real questions.
Rick's Rant captures it well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjtPesLLE1c
When asked about Canada's growing role in the war in Iraq, a government MP refused to answer and instead accused the opposition of not supporting Israel.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/23/paul-calandra-iraq-mulcair-scheer-neutrality_n_5870714.html
Why provide details about Canada's military mission in Iraq when you can just accuse your questioner of failing to support Israel?
Question Period sorely lacked answers Tuesday, as NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair pressed Tory MP Paul Calandra to provide more information about the scope of Canada's latest foray into the Middle East.
Rather than answer Mulcair's questions, Calandra launched into accusations that an NDP fundraiser named Alex Anderson accused Israel of "genocide" and that New Democrats do not support Israel.
He then cried when it was pointed out how undemocratic his behavior was.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservative-mp-makes-tearful-apology-to-ndp-leader/article20802034/
The last "government" used this idiot to avoid answering a lot of very important questions during Question Period.
http://o.canada.com/news/national/paul-calandra-2013-video
They even created an interactive website where you can "ask" Calandra a question and get a BS answer back.
http://askpaulcalandra.com/
Question Period is great when it works, but that requires a government that respects the rules and an opposition that is willing to fight often hard for the right to even ask questions.
There are even less checks and balances in a Parliamentary democracy, our last Prime Minister was more like a dictator.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/10/Harper-Abuses-of-Power-Final/
Yes, there are no perfect systems, but the kinks should be fixable.
Incidentally, do you know if crying in Parliament permitted under the rules of order? ?