1. Has environmentalism overrun common sense in California?
2. Does China’s recent criticism of Myanmar show that it is taking the issue of human rights more seriously?
3. Should climate change denial be a crime?
4. Does the U.S. need more e-colleges?
5. How much change will the DPJ be able to bring to Japan?
6. Should Massachusetts legislators change state law to allow Deval Patrick to appoint an interim replacement for Ted Kennedy?
7. Is the West embracing Libya too much?
8. Does the current economic climate make immigration reform harder?
9. Is the high prevalence of private contractors in Afghanistan an impediment to success there?
10. Is Berlusconi’s government living on a prayer?
Category: U.S. Extemp Page 48 of 55
By Logan Scisco
During the “off season” after NFL Nationals, the issue of the budget deficit has come to be a major one in American politics. It has the potential to shape the outcome of the midterm elections in 2010 and is playing a role in President Barack Obama’s declining popularity ratings. As extempers get ready for the 2009-2010 season, which starts in less than six weeks with the Wake Forest National Early Bird, they will face questions about an array of economic issues such as unemployment, the effectiveness of the stimulus package, and the level of international trade as well as the controversial issue of healthcare reform. All of these issues have something to do with the budget of the United States government and by proxy the deficit the U.S. government currently finds itself facing.
Americans in the late 1990s got used to seeing fiscal discipline on Capitol Hill between the executive and legislative branches. President Bill Clinton worked with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, a relationship that was often tense through impeachment proceedings and a government shutdown, to craft a budget that was balanced and that ran a surplus totaling $128 billion. In fact, the major issue of the 2000 election between Vice-President Al Gore and then-Texas Governor George W. Bush was over what to do with this budget surplus, with Gore arguing that it needed to be used to shore up entitlement programs such as Social Security in a “lockbox” and Bush arguing that it needed to be given back to the American people in the form of a tax cut. After the first presidential debate between the two men in the fall of 2000, Saturday Night Live had a hilarious mock debate over this issue.
After Bush won the election, he was able to get Congress to approve his tax cut package and celebrated the occasion as a victory for small government. However, thanks to September 11th and a U.S. recession that began after Bush was elected, the federal government started to see deficits early in the Bush administration. By the time Bush left office, he and Congress, which was controlled for six years of his administration by Republicans, left the country with nearly a $500 billion deficit. To put this into perspective, that number represents nearly three percent of America’s gross domestic product (GDP), the total value of goods and services produced within the U.S. in a given year.
Therefore, this topic brief will describe the state of the budget deficit under the Obama administration, how Congress and the Obama administration are trying to cope with it, and the political fallout on the budget deficit issue.
with Nicholas Cugini, Mark Royce, Logan Scisco, Rob Warchol
Extemp Roundtable is a new addition to The Ex Files for this season. In this column a panel of recognized extempers will examine a question that could come up in a future round and they will reveal their feelings and how they would tackle the question if it was posed to them in a round.
This issues panel is made up of the following individuals:
Nicholas Cugini placed third in United States Extemp at the 2009 NFL National tournament. Last season, we was also the winner of United States Extemp at the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational and was a finalist at the MBA Round Robin and the International Extemp tournament at St. Mark’s. He attended Cypress Ridge High School in Texas and was coached by Scott Baker. In the fall, Nicholas will attend Yale University.
Mark Royce was the runner-up in International Extemp in 2002. He coached at Montgomery Bell Academy, and is now a Ph.D. candidate in political science at George Mason University.
Logan Scisco was the national final round champion of United States Extemp at the 2003 NFL National tournament. He was a four-time national finalist in extemp while competing for Danville High School in Kentucky and for Western Kentucky University. He currently coaches for Boone County High School in Kentucky and for Western Kentucky University, where he is pursuing a masters degree in history.
Rob Warchol competed for Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngtown, Ohio. With the help of Karen Wright, he was a 3 time state qualifier, and a 2 time national qualifier in United States Extemp. He placed 7th at the 2009 NFCL National Tournament and 8th at the 2009 NFL National Tournament. Rob is continuing his extemp career under Jason Warren at George Mason University, where he plans on majoring in Government and International Politics, with an aspiration of law school.
1. Is China doing enough to curb environmental pollution?
2. Who is Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel?
3. Are attempts at a bipartisan solution to healthcare futile?
4. How can the U.S. military increase the mental health of its troops?
5. Does Bernanke deserve another term?
6. Are Democrats politicizing Ted Kennedy’s death?
7. Does Angela Merkel need to become more aggressive after local election setbacks for her party?
8. How can opium be eradicated in Afghanistan?
9. Will the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group be a better way to get information from terror suspects?
10. How will the DPJ adjust Japan’s relationship with the United States?
1. Does David Cameron need to be more specific about his plans to cut Britain’s deficit?
2. Should Israel strongly consider launching a new offensive against Hezbollah?
3. Can Bill Clinton make a difference for Haiti?
4. Is the global recession over?
5. Will the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi strain US-British relations?
6. How can the GOP successfully rebrand itself?
7. Will Obama’s planned reforms to the VA significantly help veterans?
8. Should the Obama administration push to abolish DOMA?
9. How can Obama increase support for the Afghan war?
10. Should the drinking age be lowered to 18?
Also, the first edition of the Ex Files for the 2009-2010 season will be released early next week (if not sooner). Included will be a roundtable discussion of Obama’s healthcare plan, an interview with last year’s National Points Race champion Stacey Chen, a preview of the Wake Forest National Early Bird, a breakdown of point changes in this year’s National Points Race, and more!
1. Are Israeli evictions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem impeding the chance of a two state solution?
2. Is the recent decline in unemployment a victory for Obama?
3. Should the U.S. establish permanent military bases in Liberia?
4. Why is militia activity in the U.S. back on the rise?
5. Is Obama’s “talk first” diplomacy failing?
6. Should the U.S. remove the EITM from the State Department’s list of terrorist groups?
7. How can Nigeria fight corruption more effectively?
8. Are Chinese restrictions on foreign “green” technology misguided?
9. Would a carbon tariff policy by the U.S. provoke a trade war with developing nations?
10. Should Obama push for an immigration reform bill next year?
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Without question the biggest domestic issue facing the United States in healthcare. After years of extempers discussing foreign policy issues such as the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the United States role in the international system, the focus has shifted back to domestic issues as Americans become more concerned about the home front in light of the economic recession.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama discussed the need to reform America’s healthcare system. This was a message that had been forwarded by President Bill Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore, and Senator John Kerry in their presidential runs dating back to 1992. However, in Clinton’s case healthcare reform failed and Gore and Kerry failed to find enough resonance with the issue to win their respective elections.
Due to this promise it is no surprise that Obama has chosen this issue as his first major domestic social challenge. However, the road to reforming American healthcare is complicated, likely more complicated than Obama had expected. This topic brief will focus more on the political aspect of healthcare reform and if a healthcare reform bill is passed in the fall there will be another topic brief that will break down the components of the healthcare package. Therefore, this topic brief will discuss the major issues with American healthcare, Obama’s strategy for passing healthcare reform, and the consequences for getting or failing to get a bill passed by the end of the year.
1. Is the Obama administration doing enough to decrease home foreclosures?
2. Should prisoners be given the right to a DNA test?
3. Does Canada need a free trade agreement with the EU?
4. Why is there such opposition to the idea of Tony Blair as EU president?
5. Should Kenya have created a special tribunal to prosecute those who committed electoral violence in 2008?
6. Did CARS greatly help the auto industry?
7. Should President Clinton be sent to Iran?
8. Can the DPJ successfully bring significant change to Japan’s political culture?
9. Should Ahmadinejad have Rafsanjani arrested?
10. Will rowdy town halls doom healthcare reform?
As has been the case over the last several years, international attention was focused on North Korea last week as former U.S. president Bill Clinton went on a “humanitarian” mission to seek the release of two American journalists detained there. Unlike other attempts at international reconciliation with North Korea, Clinton’s visit was a large success, winning the release of the journalists and possibly opening a new arena of dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea over its human rights record and nuclear program.
Clinton’s visit to North Korea was the first high profile U.S. visit to the country since Clinton sent his Secretary of State Madeline Albright there a decade ago. Under Clinton, tensions between the U.S. and North Korea were high, with some experts predicting a renewed Korean War in the post-Cold War world. However, thanks to the 1994 Agreed Framework between the two countries, those tensions simmered down until North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003.
The visit of the former president granted a degree of prestige to North Korea’s ailing leader Kim Jong-il, whose recent belligerent actions in regards to nuclear weapon and missile tests are said to be designed to shore up his standing in the country with the military and ensure that his third son takes his place. In fact, it has been reported that the North Korean government informed the United States that if President Clinton came to visit them that they would grant the release of the two journalists.
This topic brief will provide some quick background of the dispute over the journalists, explain how the release of the journalists could impact international mediation over the North Korea nuclear issue, and how it could have major political and foreign policy impacts for the Obama administration moving forward.
Since it is the first Tuesday in August, here are the first questions of the 2009-2010 season from Extemp Central:
1. Should the U.S. negotiate with the Taliban to achieve a lasting solution in Afghanistan?
2. How can India maximize its economic potential?
3. Is Obama right on Honduras?
4. Should Blue Dog Democrats be worried about 2010?
5. Does the Fed need more economic power?
6. Can menu labeling laws a good tool in the fight against obesity?
7. What does the Natalia Estemirova’s kidnapping and murder say about the state of Chechnya?
8. Should Cameron cut Ashcroft loose?
9. How can the U.S. increase its leverage over Myanmar’s junta?
10. Do rating agency practices need to be reformed?
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Finally, don’t hesitate to comment on the posts on the site. User feedback is appreciated!
During the “off season” after NFL Nationals, the issue of the budget deficit has come to be a major one in American politics. It has the potential to shape the outcome of the midterm elections in 2010 and is playing a role in President Barack Obama’s declining popularity ratings. As extempers get ready for the 2009-2010 season, which starts in less than six weeks with the Wake Forest National Early Bird, they will face questions about an array of economic issues such as unemployment, the effectiveness of the stimulus package, and the level of international trade as well as the controversial issue of healthcare reform. All of these issues have something to do with the budget of the United States government and by proxy the deficit the U.S. government currently finds itself facing.
Americans in the late 1990s got used to seeing fiscal discipline on Capitol Hill between the executive and legislative branches. President Bill Clinton worked with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, a relationship that was often tense through impeachment proceedings and a government shutdown, to craft a budget that was balanced and that ran a surplus totaling $128 billion. In fact, the major issue of the 2000 election between Vice-President Al Gore and then-Texas Governor George W. Bush was over what to do with this budget surplus, with Gore arguing that it needed to be used to shore up entitlement programs such as Social Security in a “lockbox” and Bush arguing that it needed to be given back to the American people in the form of a tax cut. After the first presidential debate between the two men in the fall of 2000, Saturday Night Live had a hilarious mock debate over this issue.
1. How much of a setback is the Lebanese election result for Iran?
2. Will Obama’s speech in Cairo lead to a breakthrough in American-Muslim relations?
3. Should the Federal Reserve be buying Treasury securities?
4. Will the Iranian presidential election go to a second round?
5. How will the election of conservatives to the European Parliament affect the body?
6. What is the likelyhood of Congress passing anti-China trade legislation by the end of the year?
7. Will Omar al-Bashir’s visit to Zimbabwe hurt the country’s attempt at getting foreign aid?
8. Should California cut welfare benefits to save the state budget?
9. Can governments successfully use social networking sites to their advantage?
10. How should Obama handle North Korea?
These will be the last questions of the 2008-2009 season. New questions will be posted on the site during the first Tuesday in August. Extemp Central thanks you for another great season! An NFL wrap up and final national points race standings will be posted over the next two weeks.
By Colin West & Logan Scisco
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to some topic areas being reused on a yearly basis by the National Forensic League, some of Colin’s analysis that appeared on Extemp Central’s website last year was pieced into this topic area analysis.
As was done for the Catholic Forensic League (CFL) national tournament, Extemp Central provides you with this topic area analysis for the United States extemp portion of next week’s NFL national tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. While it appears this year that there will be a stronger overall pool of talent in International extemp, conforming to the normal pattern of the last decade that does not mean that International extemp is the harder tournament to navigate.
When people ask me which area of extemp I think is harder to win at NFL, I always answer United States extemp. My decision could be biased, as I did United States extemp all four years (although I regret never dabbling in International extemp), but I do believe that United States extemp has more variables tied into achieving a high level of performance than International extemp for two reasons.
First, it is very difficult to write thirteen rounds of questions about the United States. Yes, we are a great country and many of the things that take place here establish policy that significantly alters the globe. However, trying to come up with nearly thirty questions per round about issues only in the United States is very difficult. This is compounded by a problem all extempers are familiar with at some local tournaments: a lack of quality questions. I remember senior year the first question I drew was “Why does the right hate public education?” I also have encountered questions about whether prisoners should have to work, questions about timber companies, and questions about water problems in Utah. All of these questions show that there is a depth to U.S. extemp that can get very nit picky and there might come a time in the tournament when an extemper is going to be forced to talk about an issue they may never have heard of or not have a lot of substantial material to support a speech in their file boxes.
Second, most judges are more familiar with topics found in U.S. extemp rounds than International extemp rounds. If an informal poll was conducted at the national tournament, I would be willing to bet that there are more judges who know about the current Supreme Court nominee than about Britain’s expenses scandal. This presents U.S. extempers with two issues. The first issue is that judges are going to be somewhat aware of what you are talking about so it is harder for those extempers to “b.s.” their way through rounds (although that may work to many educated competitors advantage). Another issue is that for some topics, such as abortion, affirmative action, etc. that are quite controversial, judges have biases that are tough to shake. I remember drawing abortion, Title IX, and slave reparations in round ten of NFL my junior year and I am convinced that the bad topic draw I achieved in that round and the biases my judges were bound to have, was part of the reason why my cumulative score took a hit.
To assist extempers to navigating the tournament, this topic area analysis hopes to serve as a preview of what extempers can expect to see in each round and provide some practice questions so they can be ready for next week’s event. Keep in mind, these are only predictions and opinions of the writers based on our prior experiences at the tournament. We can be wrong, but I would like to say that most of our predictions about last year’s topics (and my prediction about the Health topic being the CFL semi-final or final topic area) were right.
1. Will recent fighting between Fatah and Hamas forces in the West Bank doom hopes for a unity government?
2. Twenty years later: Did Tiananmen Square fail to change China?
3. Will the government’s plan for GM prove fruitless?
4. Why is Belarus having a falling out with Russia?
5. What impact will the George Tiller shooting have on Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings?
6. Can the international community apply lessons learned from the war on drugs to the problem of Somali piracy?
7. Obama’s cyber security plan: sound policy or completely misguided?
8. Will Obama’s words concerning Iran’s nuclear program prompt Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear installations?
9. Is the U.S. economy headed for Zimbabwe style hyperinflation?
10. Are Mexican efforts to help street children an attempt to sweep the problem of poverty “under the rug”?
Last week, extempers were given the treat of seeing President Barack Obama and former Vice-President Dick Cheney give speeches on national security. The Obama administration has continued to advocate that the Bush administration’s policies were negligent in winning international support and made hasty decisions concerning the treatment of detainees in the conflict. Not to take these allegations lying down, Cheney has fired back that Obama is trying to compromise with an enemy that will never compromise and is endangering America’s national security when he is releasing information about interrogation techniques and wanting to close Guantanamo Bay.
On top of this, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been under fire for accusing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of lying before Congress and for arguing that she was unaware that waterboarding techniques where being utilized on detainees. This has created yet another partisan, and some would say distracting, conflict on Capitol Hill that augurs ill for Obama’s promise of getting past the politics of division.
With NFL several weeks away, extempers need to brush up on their understanding of America’s national security debate. Even international extempers could face questions about how America’s image abroad is being impacted by the domestic debate we are seeing play out. Thus, this brief will provide a quick overview of the conflict between Republicans and Democrats on national security, the steps being implemented by President Obama to settle some of these national security issues and what the GOP is doing to attack Democratic opposition, and then provide some political impacts for the current national security debate.