On Tuesday there was a bipartisan debate on the Economy called “Congress Debates”
You can go to the DLC site and read news reports about the event and link to a video. The DLC has this to say about it:
Spirited political debate always has been — and always should be — essential to the conduct of our nation’s business. But the big ideas that have changed America — from the G.I. Bill to the Voting Rights Act, from Medicare to welfare reform — earned support from both parties and were the products of negotiation and compromise.
It is a sad truth that too frequently Washington focuses on the war of sound bites rather than engaging in constructive debate to build real-world solutions. We hope that today’s debate and those that follow will change that.
Representatives Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Adam Putnam (R- Fla.) deserve credit for trying to move past the hyper-partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill. At the DLC, we are delighted to work with the Congressional Institute and the leadership of both the Democratic Caucus and the Republican Conference to foster the kind of frank, substantive discussion that is so often missing in today’s Washington — the kind of debate that is necessary to forge solutions to America’s biggest challenges.
I watched and listened closely to calibrate my own sense of these issues. It seemed to me that the Republican’s were more ideological by constantly returning to the idea that less taxes on entrepreneurs and their companies liberate more growth. They uniformly defended the $13 Billion tax relief on the Oil companies even though this has not resulted in any meaningful efforts to increase investments in the refining of gasoline to help lower the price at the pump. It was also interesting to me that the two major domestic actions during the Bush presidency were the No Child Left Behind which imposed a massive federal mandate on local schools, and the Medicare Part D which was a major expansion of government assisted health care.
The Democrats seemed to be more pragmatic in dissecting problems into smaller observations of how markets forces break down and need more astute regulation in fields of Energy, Health, College aid, Financial services, Consumer Protection and Trade. It is my impression that Democrats are generally ahead of the curve on what support and services are needed by the middle class. And only after there is sufficient public support the GOP accedes to participate in crafting an accommodating policy.
Born 1950, Married, Living in Austin Texas, Semi
Retired Small Business owner and investor. My political interest
evolved out of his business experience that the best decisions come out of an objective gathering of information and a pragmatic consideration of costs and benefits. I am interested in promoting Centrist candidates and Policies. My posts are mostly about people and policies that I believe are part of the solution rather the problem.