re: ***tOfficial Policy Debate Thread: Category 1***

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Somehow we have to. We can't keep spending into oblivion. Yes, government spending is good, but not always and somewhere there needs to be cuts.

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I guess I just don't agree with the blanket statement of having to get government spending under control. It's a rather vague, generic statement.

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Let the private sector do some work.

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There's too much diminishing returns in it right now for the private sector to provide it. We can't sit idly by and just wait for the private sector to provide it when we're still subsidizing farming, banking, auto industry, and any number of other industries. We need to incentivize the private sector to develop it to a point that it is both affordable and readily accessible for a majority of citizens.

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1. Should the government increase environmental regulations to prevent global warming?

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No such thing

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2. Should National Parks continue to be preserved and protected by the federal government?

3. Do you support the use of hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas resources?

4. Should the United States require labeling of genetically engineered foods?

5. Should the U.S. expand offshore oil drilling?

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Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

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6. Should the federal government continue to give tax credits and subsidies to the wind power industry?

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frick no

That's cool, it helps flesh out ideas. Beliefs and ideas need challenging.

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1. Should the government increase environmental regulations to prevent global warming?

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frick no. Global warming is not something we can control. No reason to crap on our own economy when a sunspot can undo whatever it is we think we are doing by limiting carbon from North America.

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2. Should National Parks continue to be preserved and protected by the federal government?

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They should probably be given to the state governments, but not a high-pri issue.

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3. Do you support the use of hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas resources?

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I make a living off it, so yes. Gasland was a pack of lies and their is a reason they made it about that area: Oil and gas have been seeping up through the soil into the water there naturally for eons. It's where the first oil wells were dug, because the oil was literally right under the topsoil.

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4. Should the United States require labeling of genetically engineered foods?

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No, this is more dumb regulation to appease tinfoil hat Monsanto-survivors.

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5. Should the U.S. expand offshore oil drilling?

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The US should let drilling happen anywhere offshore, at any time.

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6. Should the federal government continue to give tax credits and subsidies to the wind power industry?

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No. Sustainable enterprises don't require subsidies. Why? Because they sustain themselves.

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I guess I just don't agree with the blanket statement of having to get government spending under control. It's a rather vague, generic statement.

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What's vague about it? In Bush's two terms our national debt rose 2.1 trillion over the first and 4 trillion over the second. In Obama's first term, our national debt rose just over 6 trillion. That is out of control government spending. There is nothing generic about it.

Wiki Link

Also, it takes into account Change in Debt-to-GDP ratio.

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There's too much diminishing returns in it right now for the private sector to provide it. We can't sit idly by and just wait for the private sector to provide it

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I agree with you there. The private sector isn't going to dump money into something with little to no return.

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when we're still subsidizing farming, banking, auto industry, and any number of other industries

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The subsidies as a whole need to be looked at and cut back.

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We need to incentivize the private sector to develop it to a point that it is both affordable and readily accessible for a majority of citizens.

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Absolutely.

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The better statement is we need to invest our government spending with an eye to the overall ROI on economic wellbeing. Don't cut for the sake of cutting. Spend smarter and the cuts will happen with an increase in revenue.

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I can agree with this.

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What's vague about it? In Bush's two terms our national debt rose 2.1 trillion over the first and 4 trillion over the second. In Obama's first term, our national debt rose just over 6 trillion. That is out of control government spending. There is nothing generic about it.

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Even worse, our asset inflation (home prices/stock) has been out of control since 2000 thanks to basically 0% interest rate. No one at the Fed has the guts to raise the rate and suffer the short term notoriety in exchange for some economical sanity and real growth. We just keep throwing money an an ever shrinking real economy, add government spending to the GDP numbers and pat each other on the back for a job well done.

We're heading for an economic cliff that is going to send us into the 3rd world.

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The way it was worded initially just didn't give any context

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My bad. I guess I could have been more specific, but I figured the national debt has been covered so much people would understand what I was getting at, but I could have done better.

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But I also think we have both a revenue and a spending problem. It needs to be attacked from both sides, and yes that does mean tax increases for some.

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Absolutely. It takes someone that is ready for a little bad PR for the betterment of a country as a whole. Tax increases are just such a lightning rod for bad press that no one wants to touch it.

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As for the Bush comparison on the debt, I think it's an apples to oranges comparison. Bush cut taxes, then sent us to war. It was inevitable the debt would eventually spiral out of control.

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I didn't mean to pit the two against each other. I was just showing an overall national debt uptick. Bush doubled his first term in his second term and then Obama reached what the previous president had done in one term.

I was just trying to make the point that regardless of what spending is good and what is bad that there need to be cuts. Maybe we have a good idea for some future government spending, but you have to look at what return you will get for it. Even if it is a good idea, it may not be in the country's best interest to spend it right now.

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Just checking, why would we increase revenue instead of decreasing expenditures? All we really need to do is freeze spending, we don't even need to cut anything. Inflation will do the rest (surprisingly and disconcertingly quickly).

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There are many ways to go about it. The point is that it needs to be addressed, instead of ignoring it until we have to raise the ceiling each time. You don't wait until shite gets out of control to take a stand, and then go into it with no leverage, knowing good and well you will have to raise the ceiling anyway. Looking at you Republicans.

1. Should the government increase environmental regulations to prevent global warming?

Nope, all this does is increased cost to the consumer and does nothing to effect global carbon emissions.

2. Should National Parks continue to be preserved and protected by the federal government?

No, the parks need to be turned over to the states. But I do believe there should be a congressional committee who has oversight into state parks to limit a poor state from plundering public resources.

3. Do you support the use of hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas resources?

Yes, if private enterprise wants to do spend money on this then yes let it be done. I will admit that I do not fully understand this issue.

4. Should the United States require labeling of genetically engineered foods?

Yes, anything that anyone eats should have the ingredients listed on it.

5. Should the U.S. expand offshore oil drilling?

Yes, if private enterprise deems it a sound financial investment.

6. Should the federal government continue to give tax credits and subsidies to the wind power industry?

Not no, but hell no. I could be okay with low interest loans that do not exceed 50% of initial cost.