domestic social Archives - Extemp Central

Topic Brief: America’s Healthcare Debate

On August 18, 2009

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.

Topic Brief: Social Security & Medicare Spending

By geniao44446

On May 19, 2009

In Topic Brief, U.S. Extemp

Last week Social Security and Medicare trustees released a chilling report that documented the dire financial straits of the programs they oversee. According to the trustees, Social Security will start taking in less money than it sends out in 2016 and by 2037 the fund will go bust, four years earlier than anticipated. Also, Medicare’s hospital fund is already running a deficit and is now in danger of going bust by 2017.

Social Security and Medicare are two of the largest federal government programs. Social Security provides an array of services for disabilities, child insurance, and most importantly, a supplemental income to retiring Americans. Medicare helps to cover hospital costs and medical costs for senior citizens, including a generous prescription drug benefit that the Bush administration added to the program in 2004. The point of these two programs was to prevent seniors from falling into poverty when they were no longer working.

Solutions to these programs have been advocated before by think tanks and task forces. However, Congress has long delayed looking into reforming these programs because of the unpopularity such moves would cause.

This brief will explain the current fiscal status of these programs and why they are in dire straits, proposed changes to these programs, and political impact the dire status of these programs could have in the near future.

Topic Brief: American Education (2008)

By geniao44446

On November 25, 2008

In Topic Brief, U.S. Extemp

Domestic social issues are issues that extempers never want to discuss. Extempers dread walking into them and feel even worse after they have competed. Speaking on domestic social issues well is a fine balancing act between taking a moderate approach on issues, so as not to offend judges, and having a knowledge base that can cite specific examples of how approaches have worked in the past and could work better in the future.

This brief will be shorter than most, simply because the Thanksgiving holiday does not allow for any tournaments to occur this weekend. However, I would hope that most extempers would use the days off of school to get caught up on current events and knock out some heavy reading.

Topic Brief: Poverty

By admin

On November 15, 2008

In Topic Brief, U.S. Extemp

by Bill Thompson

Preface: While the point of this brief is not to advocate for Universal Healthcare, it is not an unfair expectation to suggest that children should NOT suffer medically because of their socio economic status. According to the US Census Bureau 34% of those in poverty in 2007 were children.

It is entirely possible that there is no task more daunting than trying to explain “Poverty” in a single extemp brief. Before I begin I would like to preface that I have a larger investment in this issue than most who will read this. For the last 7 years I have worked with homeless and abused teens in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. I have seen firsthand the toll that poverty has on its victims and the gravitational pull that it emits, making it at times like a blackhole pulling in those who get too close to it. Poverty is also not just an issue because of America’s current economic woes. “From 1975 to 2001, the U.S. child poverty rate did not go below 16%. For much of that time, the child poverty rate was at or above 20%.” (National Center for Children in Poverty, Low Income Children in the United States: A Brief Demographic Profile, March 2003)

I suggested this brief to Logan because in the 16 years I have judged extemp I can count on one hand the quality extemp speeches I have seen on the topic. This is due to a few causes: 1. Most extempers have an aversion to the subject that causes them not to take poverty questions or write them when they become coaches. 2. Those who do take poverty questions address them in a very narrow manner and do not understand the many facets of this subject. I say this because there is no way in a single brief that I will be able to adequately navigate all the causes and effects of poverty. However, it is my hope that by first addressing what poverty is and how it is measured and next the side effects of poverty on American citizens that those reading will have a better understanding of poverty and it’s toll on America.

Topic Brief: United States Education

By Logan Scisco

On November 1, 2007

In Topic Brief, U.S. Extemp

By Logan Scisco

Education, the one social issues topic that makes most extempers as squeamish as drawing a topic on abortion, a controversial racial issue, or gender topics. The reason for this squeamishness is simple: most of your judges are educators or are parents who have children in some stage of the American education system. As a result of this, extempers are afraid of offending their audience because no teacher wants to be told for seven minutes that they are part of the problem in U.S. education and no parent wants to be told that their child is stuck in a failing education system for the same period of time. However, extempers who fall into the trap of ending up on the wrong side of a judge’s ballot often run afoul because they do not have solid facts and information to convince the audience of their viewpoint. Instead, those who often go with the advocacy position that U.S. education needs to be improved do not offer much hope for improvement at all and simply dwell on the negatives of the system. That road will lead to many lost rounds that an extemper could have won if they had researched the issue much more in depth.

U.S. education is one of those topics where an extemper already has direct experience. After all, if you are an extemper reading this brief you are enrolled in a high school somewhere in this country and (hopefully) regularly attend school everyday. There are probably teachers you like and teachers you hate and you probably have some of your own opinions as to how your education could be improved upon. Therefore, when reading information about the U.S. education system you should be able to make connections to your own learning environment. This makes reading articles about U.S. education much simpler and more intriguing for extempers (at least of the domestic variety).

Topic Brief: United States Healthcare

By Logan Scisco

On October 1, 2007

In Topic Brief, U.S. Extemp

By Logan Scisco

One domestic issue that extempers will always encounter during the dreaded “social issues” rounds is the state of health care in the United States. Navigating through the maze of health insurance coverage, why health care costs are high, and how the shortage of health care in the country can be solved can become a nightmare for even the most well read and skilled extemper.

Health care is a pressing social issue that is currently facing the United States. According to the Census Bureau in 2006, 47 million Americans lack health insurance. These 47 million Americans represent 15.8 percent of the population and the lack of health care coverage is linked to rising health care costs that are burdening the American economy and the American consumers who are fortunate enough to enjoy private or public health care coverage.

With a presidential election due in November 2008, health care has become the top domestic issue of the campaign. Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, and John Edwards, the three leading Democratic contenders for president, have released their plans to expand health care coverage in the United States and create a universal health care system. The Republican Party has been mute on the issue of universal health care coverage but its leading candidates such as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have acknowledged that change needs to be introduced into the American health care apparatus.

A full extemp topic brief on health care in the United States could span thirty to forty pages. In order to make this topic brief manageable for extempers and for this brief book I have zeroed the focus on United States health care to a few critical issues: how healthcare is provided for in the United States, the problems of health care in the United States, the pluses and minuses of universal health care coverage, and the different health care plans that have been proposed thus far by leading presidential contenders.

Note: For a good explanation of the various issues facing the American health care system look at Yoni Schneller’s chapter on health care in VictoryBriefs Extemp Topic Brief books. His write up can be found in volume one of those briefs (originally published in 2000) if they are still available for sale.