Confirmation Hearing: TyriontheImperialist for Vice President (Questioning)

[President Tyrion]

I hereby present myself to the Senate.

So, Tyrion, what are your hopes and plans for the office? Are you going to be an active VP like Windjammer hoped to be or do you plan on taking the laid back approach? I support your confirmation either way, I'm just curious.

Are there any specific issues that you would like to push within the administration?

Well, I don't think I want to be at either "extreme", if we can call them that.

Unlike Windjammer, I don't plan on administering every slot. Like Windjammer, I plan on being active in Senate goings-on and active enough to keep the Senate rolling smoothly along. But now that the power structure has solidified, I don't feel any real need to take on quite the same role.

I do foresee myself still being pretty active in debate threads and whatnot, considering my background as a Senator for quite a while.

As for my hopes and goals, I obviously don't have a full term, but I'd like to see the first steps taken to a pilot program of implementing a significant universal basic income to replace many social services and most of the minimum wage, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect such a goal to become full-fledged in such a short period of time.

I would like to see the Senate Rules consolidated and freshened up, and I think that's a good project to undertake. I want to thank Nix for making excellent headway on that.

Finally, I would like to see something close to power and fuel nationalization, although it's a bit of a hot button issue, so we'll have to wait and see if there's an acceptable version available.

I hope that sufficiently answered both of your questions. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to expand upon.

[President Tyrion]

Are you ready to be the President of the Republic of Atlasia if Pres. DemPGH were to die or resign?

Oddly morbid question....

I am indeed ready if that is the case, but the President is in good health, and not likely to resign, I don't think.

[President Tyrion]

Do you think Windjammer overextended and if so, would you still main the same level of involvement as say DemPGH's time under Nix's reign of terror?

Would you still run at least a handful of slots?

Also what about disputes concerning interpretation of rules, would you pursue an impartial approach to such?

I think I'd be closer to DemPGH's involvement than Windjammer's, absolutely. I'm not sure I'd say WJ overextended, so much as he was required to preside over the Senate for quite a while with the Supreme Court injunction. But I certainly don't plan on extending myself that far, regardless of whether we can call it overextension or not.

And yes, I plan on running essentially the same handful of slots that the VP has historically run, from the foreign policy slots to the executive agenda slots. No real bells and whistles there.

I do certainly see myself being impartial on the rules. The rules are, to me, something that transcends politics.

[President Tyrion]

Any other questions?

[President Tyrion]

I have not seen a response to Lumine's post. I don't know if this has been hashed out elsewhere nor do I have time to hunt for such.

So for now I will vote Nay pending a response on the matter.

Lumine left me nothing to respond to. It was a bald-faced call to politicize this vote, not a question for the nominee. 

But if I must respond, I'll say that I certainly do have a record of pragmatism. And, like I've said before, I vote to make sure that the best version of the bill is the one that passes, sometimes meaning pushing it to a redraft, and other times meaning rejecting the bill outright, like as was the case in the Public Fuel and Power bill, which, lest we forget, I voted against after understanding the arguments on both sides.

I didn't really feel the need to say any of that (mostly because Lumine felt the need to write a speech during the questioning period), but I think that should hopefully sufficiently address your concerns.

[President Tyrion]

One last question (It may have been answered already), would you continue to oppose the public fuel act?

I'm assuming this is directed at me....

I would not pass the bill in its current form, no, and I would oppose it if the same exact version reached a 5-5 vote in the Senate under my Vice Presidency. Nonetheless, I would like to see some form of protection or public insurance from the status quo, in terms of the government's ability to provide for the utilities needs of the common man. With that said, the detractors of the bill have brought up some interesting points. I would love to further some sort of system in the direction Averroes has suggested, in terms of credits for energy efficient home retrofitting and the like. I am still somewhat wary of some arguments (I don't think long term losses would make a government project intractable, if only inconvenient), I am otherwise accepting of others.

[President Tyrion]

I hereby present myself.

In your term as VP, the massive rule overhaul will likely come up. First off, have your read both the packages composed by Nix and myself respectively (Senate Protest and Analysis Board)?

Then secondly what will your priorities or primary concerns be in such a debate and will you actively participate in said debate actively?

Yes, I have read them (see more commentary on them below), and I certainly plan on being active in debate. The VP is an important part of Senate proceedings and I definitely believe it's my duty to help facilitate or at least participate in debate around the issue.

I definitely do agree with both of you that we need to cut down on the fluff and improve accessibility. That's not a particularly unpopular opinion, of course, so let me outline my positions a bit further. First, I'll address your question:

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I would definitely like to avoid expulsion on political grounds; that would be simply undemocratic. I disagree with nearly all of JCL's views, for example, but he's an elected Senator now, and neither I nor the Senate as a whole should be able to expel him, or Deus, or Polnut, without a proper procedural and apolitical reason.

Here are some other points I'd like to weigh in on:

1. I plan on writing a combined version of the rules at some point. I've already started drafting.

2. I would rather scale up the words (keeping simple language and whatnot) if we can be very, very explicit about succession and acts in "bad faith", in order to keep the Senate running smoothly.

3. One point of "contention" between you and Nix was the use of the Vice President (I say "contention" because I know Nix is very open to commentary and was not at all confrontational about it). I think that's particularly germane to this confirmation hearing, of course. I think the VP's role in Confirmation Hearings is actually preferred, just due to my interpretation as confirmations being in relation to an act of the executive. I like that the seniormost Senator is in charge of the PPT vote; to avoid that being political, we should make sure we have succession in order so that we have a plan for when the Senator in question fails to open the vote (perhaps for fear of losing party control). Maybe we can just say that the vote is automatically opened in some other thread or something after 5 days if it hasn't already.

4. I am currently undecided on the clogging rule.

5. There is much, much more we can talk about here. Do you have anything you'd like me to talk about in specifics?

[President Tyrion]

What was your reason for supporting a pathway to nationalization of our energy industries?

What's your interpretation of my support, exactly? I voted against the bill in the end, of course.

My views on nationalization are such: the people do, in my mind, have the right to be free of monopolies and oligopolies in power and fuel, because power and fuel are basic necessities. Beyond that, I believe the role of the government is to provide basic necessities whenever possible, at reasonable rates if we're talking about consumption goods. I understand that the economics of infrastructure creation are dire at best, which is why I would support an interim infrastructure project and national corporations to at least create competition in lieu of full nationalization, which clearly does not have public support.

[President Tyrion]

First and foremost of all, you should have been confirmed last time.

Secondly, do you feel that the VP role should be a more active entity a'la Windjammer, or are you more of the belief that the VP should only intervene in Senate procedure when absolutely necessary?

Well, I think that the VP can and should administer executive agenda slots and whatnot, similar to how things worked before Windjammer. Meanwhile...

My question is somehow related to Senator Cynic's, but would you "debate" along with the Senators in a bill thread, declare your opinions and participate in the overall debate, or will you strictly refrain yourself to administrating the bills on the floor?

I do believe the VP should be an active participant in debate, largely because I don't think the VP should be administering all the slots in the first place. I don't believe the VP should strictly administer, because it wouldn't make sense in the context of making tiebreaking votes; I think it would be rather odd to be completely aloof from the structure of debate and then cast an obviously political vote in one way or another.

[President Tyrion]

The area of disagreement was that he scales back the VP aggressively and I remember when the VP could not even be bothered to open a PPT election. I think it would be a mistake to go below that of DemPGH or Cincy in level of involvement. The specifics of what that is applied to can very, but I think that should be the minimum threshold, obviously debated between just PPT and Nomination votes is below that level.

 The clogging rule is necessary for in order slots to be functional, otherwise a Senator could fill the tree and even Nix has previously attached bill wait times to activity. Tree filling is an aspect of the real life Senate we are better off without.

My two other major concern regarding Nix's rule package is the override section. If we include limits on the use of expulsion for instance like you state a desire for on some level, then it would be necessary to exempt the expulsion section. The same should apply to the in-order introduction and clogging provisions.

Yeah, and to your point about involvement, my history as a Senator makes me relatively interested in the body's goings on in the first place, so I certainly plan on at least talking a bit more than just during vote administration. I mean, I don't technically hold an office right now and I've been talking plenty.

Clogging might be necessary to prevent complete control of the floor; however, it does seem like a rule largely intended to impact TNF at this point.

I'm not sure what you're referring to on exemptions. If you mean that expulsions should be treated differently with respect to slot usage, then, yes, I certainly agree.

First and foremost of all, you should have been confirmed last time.

Secondly, do you feel that the VP role should be a more active entity a'la Windjammer, or are you more of the belief that the VP should only intervene in Senate procedure when absolutely necessary?

Well, I think that the VP can and should administer executive agenda slots and whatnot, similar to how things worked before Windjammer. Meanwhile...

That reminds me, doesn't Nix's package eliminate the executive slots?

That's my understanding, yes. I'd rather not eliminate them entirely, personally.

[President Tyrion]

Senator, how do you view the role of Vice President in the situation of a tied-vote situation in the Senate? As in, whose interests should be of primary concern. A tied Senate vote suggests a likely publicly divided response.

Well, voting is necessarily a matter of personal preference. With that said, the VP is one of the last barriers between a bill and its becoming law. As a Senator, I was personally willing to pass bills to my left under Duke largely because I knew he would redraft probably more toward my right anyway, but I'd prefer that to rejecting the bill outright. But as the VP, you have a much firmer idea of what the President plans on doing (redraft, sign, veto), and I can craft my vote accordingly.

Really, the question is not whether or not I'd pass the bill in its current form, but whether I want to reject the bill or accept what happens to the bill once it lands on the President's desk, which is slightly different. And baked into my "willingness to accept" is an understanding of the public perception on an issue. If there's a 10/90 split on the issue in the public, but 5/5 in the Senate, then I think I'd have to very seriously consider WHY the public is so against the bill, and vote accordingly, even contrary to my own beliefs. And, at that point, it probably comes time to think about why I even held those beliefs in the first place. But I figure that sort of introspection is required of anyone who ever casts a vote.

[President Tyrion]

The area of disagreement was that he scales back the VP aggressively and I remember when the VP could not even be bothered to open a PPT election. I think it would be a mistake to go below that of DemPGH or Cincy in level of involvement. The specifics of what that is applied to can very, but I think that should be the minimum threshold, obviously debated between just PPT and Nomination votes is below that level.

 The clogging rule is necessary for in order slots to be functional, otherwise a Senator could fill the tree and even Nix has previously attached bill wait times to activity. Tree filling is an aspect of the real life Senate we are better off without.

My two other major concern regarding Nix's rule package is the override section. If we include limits on the use of expulsion for instance like you state a desire for on some level, then it would be necessary to exempt the expulsion section. The same should apply to the in-order introduction and clogging provisions.

Yeah, and to your point about involvement, my history as a Senator makes me relatively interested in the body's goings on in the first place, so I certainly plan on at least talking a bit more than just during vote administration. I mean, I don't technically hold an office right now and I've been talking plenty.

Clogging might be necessary to prevent complete control of the floor; however, it does seem like a rule largely intended to impact TNF at this point.

I'm not sure what you're referring to on exemptions. If you mean that expulsions should be treated differently with respect to slot usage, then, yes, I certainly agree.

It was passed way back in 2009 and at various points TNF, myself, Lumine were all effected by it at one point in the Spring. It does shut itself down when no other bills are introduced and we had that happen in the June period I think where all other bills were completed. Plus there are other built in exceptions where I kept TNF at four bills at one time.

My wording strengthens that:

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Would you be more favorable at a 4 bill or more clogging limit?

To clarify my other point, I was talking about the bottom of Nix's proposal. The last section contains provision to override the entire text based on a 2/3rds vote. In my view, clogging, in order introduction slots and Expulsion should be exempted from that as they preserve access to the floor/Senate and we get back to the Deus/Polnut situation.

I think I would support a 4-bill clogging rule and an exemption to that particular clause for succession, clogging, order introduction, and expulsion, although that's all negotiable.

[President Tyrion]

Thank you all for your vote of confidence. I know the last vote was highly political, but I'm glad that minds were changed and we were able to reach a consensus a second time around.