February 2018 Vice Presidential Cage Fight! (Debate)

[Associate Justice PiT]

     While ideology matters more than nothing in that we have occasional opportunities to break ties, the office of Vice President is at its heart an administrative position. This is a demanding task that requires coordinating the work of Congress and keeping things moving. Some days are slower than others, but I make it my business to always watch the Congress floor and react to things that happen as they occur.

     Contrary to what it was in the distant past, the role of Vice President is not a small or irrelevant one today. When I was PPT, I dealt with Vice Presidential inactivity and the setbacks it represented for the important work of Congress. I chose to run with President fhtagn because I wanted to apply my specific experience of managing Congressional business to a role where that experience would prove invaluable and where my natural strengths would be best put to use.

     I have proven myself to be an active and engaged Vice President over the past several months, bumping threads, directing the flow of debate as needed, addressing amendments and motions, and recruiting sponsors for bills. It is a hard role, and one that requires dedication and persistence to keep things moving. Many people see a ministerial position and assume that it must be easy drudge work, but this position requires the management of all the members of the Legislative branch of our government, and such a task is neither easy nor simple even in the best of times. Recently more than ever I have been fighting an uphill battle to keep our lawmakers working with a variety of events and quirks of timing coming together to make bills move particularly slowly.

     Both of my opponents in this debate are fine men and if I could make the point effectively without reference to their records I gladly would, but frankly they both have question marks on their records with periods of inactivity within the context of Atlasia. I have been busy with the business of government in this timeframe, and when the strength of the Vice President is a major factor in preventing Congress from collapsing we cannot afford to punctuate our future with a question mark.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     In my time as President Pro Tempore and as Vice President, I have had the chance to see what can go wrong with Congress. I have a couple of ideas for how to improve Congress's function that I have discussed with President fhtagn and am looking to unveil in the future. I will be sticking to Congress here because, while activity is a universal concern, this role's work deals with the Legislative branch.

     One issue I have encountered is that bills that pass one house and go on to the other need a sponsor, but sometimes it will take days to find one and it is conceivable that no sponsor would ever emerge. I used to entertain the idea that a bill should continue without a sponsor, but after Speaker North Carolina Yankee articulated to me the shortcomings of this proposal I have concluded that under such situations the VP should be allowed to sponsor the bill once a set period of time elapses without a Senator or Representative rises to do so. This helps ensure that the work of Congress moves along at a brisk pace and does not get bogged down over silence in empty threads.

     What's more, sometimes bills are sponsored by Senators and Representatives who proceed to lapse into inactivity. While this has been dealt with informally for some time, we should formalize this process to reduce lag that kills the momentum of bills. I propose a reform whereby if an amendment is proposed and the sponsor does not respond in a set timeframe, the chamber simply proceeds to a vote on the amendment.

     Congress does fundamentally good work and can move quite quickly when our ducks are in a row. It is true that there are some weak points in the process where bills can get bogged down, but I believe that the reforms to fix these bottlenecks can be undertaken easily within the context of the current system.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     In our administration the President handles this matter, but I am a trusted advisor of hers so I can easily speak to our foreign policy.

     Our view is that the proper role of Atlasia in foreign affairs is a limited one, following from a non-interventionist doctrine. We generally stay out of affairs that do not threaten us directly, such as such as the conflict between Spain and Catalonia, the Crimean crisis, and the North Korean Civil War. Some of the worst mistakes of past administrations have been the result of interventions abroad. Our vision for strong and stable leadership represents a rejection of aggressive foreign policies that do not serve our people's interests.

     This attitude should not however be confused with an isolationist one. We have also taken measures to improve our reputation in the international community, including working on new trade deals such as the Mozambique Free Trade agreement and opening embassies in Bhutan, Cape Verde, the Maldives, Montenegro, and Grenada.

     We do work with quite a few countries, and we have been working to hold our allies responsible for their actions when they do not align with the values of the Republic of Atlasia. When it came to our attention that they were executing thousands of LGBT individuals, we cut all forms of aid to Saudi Arabia and froze their assets. Such barbarous conduct cannot be tolerated from any nation that we would do business with and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

     To conclude and tie this all together, fhtagn and I share the foreign policy vision that Atlasia should not function as the "cops of the world", enforcing our will militarily, but that we can be a force for good in the world acting within a reasonable set of limitations.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I firmly believe that the dignity of gainful employment is fundamental to making the economy work for the citizenry. This means that we need to focus on growing the economy so that there is more pie to go around while also tackling the ongoing problem of unemployment. When unemployment is high, bargaining power shifts to the employer and wages suffer. When unemployment is low, that bargaining power shifts back to the employee. This is an important outcome that we can realize in the context of the market economy.

     Unemployment is an important issue to tackle. We can propose a jobs bill and that has happened in the past, but more to the point unemployment in Atlasia is a function of activity. This economic concern makes the point of activity all the more crucial, and this is the only ticket proven to be active and competent. My relentless pushing of the Congress to do its work leaves me uniquely situated to improve this country's unemployment numbers.

     We consider the deficit to be an important issue to tackle, as running up a deficit amounts to a mortgage against the well-being of future generations. I believe in fiscal responsibility as a bedrock principle. My preference is to not unduly increase the tax burden of Atlasian citizens, but some programs are important and paying for them is of utmost importance. I join President fhtagn in supporting the House's PayGo resolution, working to ensure that appropriations passing the House are properly paid for.

     Free trade is an important tool for economic growth in Atlasia and one that our administration has pushed to expand, with the unilateral free trade deal with China and another free trade agreement with Mozambique. It encourages specialization of the economy, increasing wealth for both our citizens and the impoverished peoples of the third world. There have been rumblings about free trade leading to the loss of Atlasian jobs, but the ill of outsourcing owes much more to the spread of shareholder theories of value. This is a destructive managerial theory that is by no means part and parcel with free trade, and to understand it as such does a disservice to free trade as a concept.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I would also like to thanks LouisvilleThunder for making this debate an enjoyable experience and one that allowed the candidates to effectively showcase our views here.

     When it comes down to it, I boast a proven track record of activity as Vice President, which my opponents do not. They may come to you with high-flying ideas of reforms, but I should remind everyone that we are already operating in the aftermath of a major game reform to promote activity: the Reboot and Consolidation. In Atlasia, the people matter as much or more than the system. If you put inactive people in government, no reform will then produce an active game.

     Wells boasts about how his ticket supports policies to benefit low-income Atlasians. However, if we look at one of these policies (free college) that is currently in a bill before the Senate, Pericles proposes a risk fee on large banks, an unusual measure. When it is pointed out that it is not likely that banks will accept this new tax so easily, his only rationale is that they have "plenty if [sic] money". His postings here indicate that he is in way over his head with little understanding of policy and the effects that these proposals have, and the Atlasian people benefit little from such a champion.

     When we come to the other ticket, Spiral's track record as PPT is atrocious. When the noticeboard was opened, it took him a week to make the PPT's post despite receiving PMs from both Yankee and myself, and he has never updated that post in the month since then. He has not posted in the Senate since February 6th, when he opened a final vote that he should have closed some time ago. Most of his posts since then have been in the debate. Griffin talks about his goal of being "a competent administrator", but why then did he choose to play second fiddle to a blatantly incompetent administrator?

     Frankly, the alternatives to the fhtagn/PiT ticket either have a tenuous grasp on reality or are just extremely inactive. If you want to close your eyes really hard and believe that things will improve if you just pass the right bill, vote for them. If you do not want Congress to implode, vote for us. Thank you all and good night.