Southern Senate Debate Debating Thread

[HomestarSB9]

Greetings to all! I am HomestarSB9! I hope to be your next Senator! I'm running with a promise of new leadership that will hopefully serve the South and the Senate well. I'm taking a common-sense approach on gun control, a supportive approach towards same-sex marriage, decreasing taxes on the hardworking members of our industry, and above all else, make sure our public can live a safe, and happy, life.

[HomestarSB9]

I'll get to my answers here after school is finished for me today.

[HomestarSB9]

Social Issues:
> What is your view on the issue of abortion?
> What policies do you support regarding the environment?
> What is your view on immigration?
Individual Questions:
> To HomestarSB9: In your opening statement, you said you want to decrease taxes on hardworking people. Could you go into more detail about the changes you want to see to the tax code?

I am personally pro-life, but I don't believe that the government should have any say in what women, or anybody for that matter, can and can't do with their bodies, I would vote in support of pro-choice causes, out of my value for the Constitution more than a personal value.

Yes, climate change is a very real thing, and humans are causing it, but I think it would be too hasty to ditch fossil fuels so soon without any sort of immediate replacement, which is why I support more research on alternative energy sources before we make any sort of big change.

I believe that immigrants that are trying to arrive for sanctuary from dangerous nations should be allowed entry, however, anyone else, goodbye, go home.

In my opening statement, I meant that we should give incentives to our workers, who have more of a right to keep what they make than the heir to a family fortune. Say that there's this Starbucks employee, who works a minimum wage job for fifteen or so years, then their uncle kicks the can and he gets the company, despite having no experience or background, somebody from the bottom climbs to the top automatically, what's fair about that? They didn't work hard, they didn't even want the company. The workers in the steel mills and coal mines on the other hand often risk their lives doing what they've been doing for years, and they get no compensation for it, they deserve to keep a large chunk of what they make.

If there is a tax code that doesn't state that the hardworking middle-class get tax cuts, I'm not going to sponsor it.

[HomestarSB9]

Game Issues:
> Many have accused the President of being too inactive. Would you agree with these accusations and what should be done about it?
> From KoopaDaQuick to all: What actions are you willing to take to end inactivity in the Senate?
> What is your view on how the relationship between regional and federal government should be?

To be frank, I do not believe that to be the case. I believe as President, they can choose to be private, given its nothing major, however, that leads me to the next point. I believe that it is not the fault of the President's activity, I believe that it is the fault that the President just isn't getting as much done as he plans to do. I believe that it is the will of the people to make the decision of what must be done because it is none of my business.

To end activity in the Senate, I will introduce articles of expulsion of any inactive Senator, regardless if they are a Torie or a Laborite. I believe that being elected to the Senate is not just an office to sit on while playing Xbox and say "Yeah I'm an Atlasian Senator." Do you have any idea of how that hurts our image to the world? That we allow such behavior in our highest offices?

I think that state governments have the right to enact whatever laws they want as long as it is not constitutionally barred. I believe that supporting regional laws while serving in federal office is inappropriate, and I will not do such things if I am elected to the Senate.

[HomestarSB9]

Economic Policy:
> The Atlasian deficit is very large. What is your plan for reducing the deficit?
> What is your view regarding trade?
> Technological changes are constantly reshaping the economy. How should policy be adapted to deal with these changes?
> What policies proposals do you have to create more jobs and generate economic growth?
Foreign Policy:
> The Chinese and their allies have been pushed out of the Korean Peninsula by Atlasia and its allies. However, no peace treaty has been signed yet. What would you like the peace treaty to look like and are there any red lines that'd cause you to vote against a treaty?
> Would you see yourself as more hawkish or dovish? What criteria would you need before supporting military intervention and to what extent would you be willing to invest Atlasia in this intervention (air bombings? full on invasion? ect.)?

I believe that increasing the taxes on the upper class is our best bet to balance the deficit. Think back to the example I gave when talking about my tax reduction plan, we've got a minimum wage Starbucks employee who's uncle gave them their company once they've hit the bucket, the siblings are the ones running the company because they don't want to bother running it, yet they still take their paychecks and spend their days playing Xbox. Is that fair to you? That he gets paid more than the coal miners just because they have a stake in a large company?

Trade is one of the most important assets. It always has been, but the problem is that we're not exporting enough. My solution is to introduce legislation that would create a Federal  Business Administration, part of this organization would help companies with exporting their products among other things.

I believe that technological changes are helping our economy flourish. I'd sponsor any legislation that would increase productivity and development of technologies that help produce the changes that we're seeing positively affect our economy.

The peace treaty that I would sign should say that the Peninsula will be occupied by the Atlasian government for a period of five years, and that the Chinese are not to do business in the Peninsula, save for the northernmost providence of Rason, and the six northernmost counties in North Hamgyong. I won't support any treaty that divides the peninsula between China and Atlasia.

I'd consider myself somewhat hawkish. I believe that any sort of military threat to us should be taken seriously, and that we should do anything possible to defend ourselves.

[HomestarSB9]

> To HomestarSB9: In response to the question on foreign policy, you said you would do anything possible to defend Atlasia from threats. How would this influence your thinking on the various geopolitical issues facing countries like Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and North Korea?
> From Tmthforu94 to Homestar SB9: Why did you decline my offer to gain legislative experience in the Chamber of Delegates?

My thinking when it comes to those countries, if they are engaging in civil wars, then it shouldn't be anything we involve ourselves in, when they threaten to take it to Atlasian soil, however, that's when we should get involved.

The reason I declined the offer to serve in the Chamber of Delegates is due to my total focus on my Senate campaign. I may choose to seek the Chamber of Delegates some day, but currently, I am focused on my campaign for this office.

[HomestarSB9]

A lot of activity has been off-shored to discord and while discord can serve a role to broker a deal or hold a meeting, we need to get back to publicly discussing and explaining positions in public in the debate threads and in the campaigns.

It is true that a lot of activity has gone to Discord, I don't think it's a particularly bad thing. I think it allows discussions and debate to go faster, as it is an instant-messaging client. I believe that we should use Discord in some sort of way alongside our campaigns and debates held publicly.

In terms of how to do deal with illegal immigration, I think this is an area where we have had special interests corrupt the system and intentionally create a constant pool of illegal immigrants to serve as slave labor. This serves various sectors rather well financially but it harms and exploits the immigrants and subverts rule of law for profit. To end this cycle you have to actually enforce our immigration laws, you have to enforce both at the border and the interior and you have to enforce both the workplace with e-verify and the entry points via a visa entry-exit system since half of illegal immigrants come in legally and then overstay the visa's. Come out of the Shadows fully funded the entry-exit system. Once you have done that stuff I am certainly open to working to indeed bring people out of the shadows.

What about the people who come here illegally from nations like Syria, where they're using chemical weapons on civilians?

[HomestarSB9]

Abortion. I am pro-life and I believe abortion to be an issue where, even while moving towards banning it would probably not be achievable in he near future, it is something that we can find ways to reduce the number of abortions from happening in the first place. These include access to contraceptives, expanded adoption and safe surrender laws. I am most certainly against late term and partial birth abortion and most regions have banned abortion or have had efforts to do so around the 20 week mark. I am very much supportive of the regions staking out their own approaches in this regard and it has historically been one that has generated a large amount of activity at the regional level and therefore I would oppose attempts to push forward with a constitutional amendment for game activity reasons, be it to ban it or to allow it for that matter.

I disagree, while I am against late-term and partial birth abortions, I wouldn't oppose a constitutional amendment to allow it. I don't believe any government should tell anyone how to live their lives.

[HomestarSB9]

To make things easier, I will split this up.

Individual Questions:
> To North Carolina Yankee: In your opening statement you stated that you only support government intervention in the economy to preserve or restore competition. Could you expand on this?

Well to begin with, I am not talking about the safety net and other supporting mechanism like the health care subsidy contained within the Reforming and Regionalizing Public Health Care Act. I had a paragraph about this but decided to cut it for length reasons so I realize that I should have revised section about monopolies to clarify this point and so I am doing so now. When it comes to that though, I would rather give people say food stamps and then let them go into a private enterprise grocery store, then to try and distribute government rations or some such mess, which some on the right have taken to as a means to cut gov't spending, in spite of it being a socialist type food distribution scheme that takes business away from private grocery stores. The idea that they would trust government to run a food distribution scheme while decrying the ability of the government to do almost anything, is rather contradictory.

I think the biggest threat to democracy and to stability and growth of the economy comes from monopolization of power. This also applies to corporations and when a single entity is so powerful that it can dominate a sector, it can dictate prices and then it can buy off even the government or push policies that work to entrench this monopoly. Those are instances where we should prioritize the good of the competitiveness of the market as opposed to the "free" aspect of the market, and by free I mean free of gov't intervention.

The benefits of the market comes from two things, one is the downward pressures on prices and two the upward pressure on quality of the productive and the quality of the customer service. The market also creates incentives to bring new ideas and new products and developments to the table that improve quality of life and general well being.

However when the market gets stifled by actors both public and private, it harms these beneficial aspects. The government could be the monopolistic force if you get into the business of nationalization. Likewise the private sector can be the monopolistic force itself. Government can also be complicit in private sector monopolies, a good example being the effect of complex and costly regulations, which stifle small business and put them at a disadvantage compared to the large corporations that can hire the fancy attorneys, lobbyists and consultants that can get them out of it. The same thing occurs in relation to the tax code as well. So the government has to be mindful of its own actions and on any given policy choice ask the question thus this ad unnecessary complexity and does it benefit large corporations at the expense of small ones. In those situations we should opt to aid the small business.

However when a situation arises where you have a severe threat to the economy, like say with too big to fail banks, I think their should be a system where the government to split up those entities while also making sure that taxpayers aren't left on the hook for the mistakes made by investment bankers. I have long supported the creation of a fund paid for by fees charged to the investment banks, that would then be used to guard against systemic collapse. I think we have become far too accepting of this culture of bigger and better and larger companies in the name of complete perfection on market efficiency and in the process we have lost sight of why we prefer the free market to anything else, because it gives the opportunity to say no and go to a competitor. There is power in that, and when you have monopolies, it shuts down that natural limiting factor.

To summarize, I think we should be more willing to break up monopolies to prevent their concentration of wealth and power and to preserve a choice on the market, as well as to carefully approach tax and regulatory policy so as to make sure we are not aiding in the concentration of wealth and power.

I disagree, I believe that the government should stay out of the banks, unless of course, they're going to collapse in on themselves, in that case, the government should seize their assets, and use those assets to pay off our deficit, the same thing should happen with monopolies that are crashing, such as Kmart, once they go, the government should take all their assets and pay off the deficit.

[HomestarSB9]

I'd like to close this debate by stating that if you vote for me, even if you don't vote for me, I will be a Senator for everyone.