Resolved: The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party

Definition: Better: the "better" party is that which, when in power, makes decisions that benefit the American people. GOP: the Republican Party. Framework: In order to win today's debate, it is the burden of the affirmative to prove that the Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party. The burden of the con is to disprove these points. -- Part 1: Democratic Party C1: Democrats are Better for the Economy In his article, "Politicians Lie, Numbers Don't" [1], Michael Kinsley analyzes the annual Economic Report of the President [2] and concludes that "beyond doubt is that Democrats are better at virtually every economic task that is important to Republicans. " The study finds that Democrats did a better of job of: 1) increasing the US's GDP ($212 billion compared to the GOP's $165 bil. [4]) 2) less inflation (3.81% compared to 4.5%), 3) lower unemployment rates (5.33% compared to 6.2%). Under Bush, 2 million jobs disappeared between 2001 and 2003 alone – 1 million each year he held office. [3] 4) less federal spending (19.6% compared to 20.6%), and 5) deficit reduction. It's evident that with Democrats in power, the economy fares much better than when under the GOP. C2: Environment According to poll conducted by Pew, 56% of Republicans still don't believe in climate change [5]. That means that any attempt to pass legislation promoting alternative, clean energy, will be opposed by Republicans (who most likely have ties to big oil corporations, whose number one fear is alternative energy. Ex-VP Dick Cheney and Halliburton, anyone? ) On the contrary, 80% of Democrats believe in climate change, and are taking valuable steps forward in proposing legislation to ensure a clean and sustainable future for America's energy. America's energy future will determine it's economic success; continuing to depend on foreign oil makes the United States vulnerable, making Republican ignorance towards climate change nothing short of economically devastating on the long term. C3: Regulation While Republicans strive to deregulate and remove government oversight, Democrats strive for the opposite. The very purpose of government is to ensure a country's safety and stability, and the key to its stability is its economic stability. A recent example of the detriments of deregulation was the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was passed by Republicans in 2000. It deregulated banking investment oversight and lead to the bursting of the housing bubble, causing the recession. [8]The CFMA also deregulated the oil futures market, creating the Enron Loophole, which allowed Enron to bilk Californian customers out of over $40 billion dollars through market manipulation. [9] Republicans go hand in hand with deregulation; and deregulation goes hand in hand with corruption. C4: Healthcare Earlier this year, Democrats addressed the problem of high healthcare costs with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Not only do these acts reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion in the first decade alone, but they also help both the doctor and the patient. It ensures that all doctors who treat Medicare patients will now be fully reimbursed, and it provides all patients with an affordable "public option" in order to ensure that more Americans will receive the benefits of health insurance. C5: Gay Rights The Republican Party stands in blatant opposition to the rights of gays to marriage and military service. On the contrary, most of the support for gay rights comes from Democrats. [7] C6: Party Strength. Out of registered American citizens, 44 million are independent, 55 million are Republican, but a whopping 72 million are registered Democrats. 26 states have Democratic governors, compared to 23 Republican governors. [6] A Republican victory in the House will be short-lived, due to their promise of "no compromise" with Dems, the GOP will inevitably put Congress into a state of gridlock for the next two years, and they will be voted out of office in 2012. Democrats continue to constitute a majority in the Senate. When Americans clearly favor Democratic policies and agenda, it's clear that the numbers say it all. --- Part 2: Republican Party C7: The Party of No Republicans, more than any party in history, have pursued an obstructionist agenda, meaning that they will oppose every piece of Democratic legislation simply because it was proposed by a Democrat, regardless of whether or not they believe in it. This thrusts Congress into a state of gridlock, making it impossible to pass moderate legislation because Republicans are refusing to even DISCUSS legislation with Democrats. Subpoint B: The Tea Party is killing off moderate Republicans Cast as traitors by the Tea Party for reaching across the aisle to work together with Democrats, moderate Republicans are now pandering to the extreme fringes of conservatives in order to gain Tea Party support. For example, Tea Party fury over Senator Chuck Grassley's willingness to negotiate with Democrats over the healthcare bill forced Grassley to change his stance on healthcare from "I'm doing everything I can to make the reform effort in Congress a bipartisan one" to "the simple truth is that I am and always have been opposed to the Obama Administration's plan to nationalize healthcare, period. " The purpose of Congress is to debate issues to compromise and craft moderate legislation that satisfies the needs of Americans. The Tea Party is turning Republican politicians into useless slobs who sit on their hands in Congress and refuse to discuss, thus undermining the very purpose of Congress itself. C8: Republican Agenda vs. Conservative Ideology In the Washington Post article "Democratic Superiority, by the Numbers", Michael Kinsley explains how "Republicans have abandoned allegedly Republican values -- if in fact they ever really had such values. " [4] While Conservative ideology touts small government, less taxes, and less spending, Republicans have perverted this into an agenda that meets their personal needs while putting the entire nation at economic risk. Republican politicians want to lower taxes and the deficit – but once they assume office, they begin spending like no other. George W. Bush signed every single spending bill that was put under his nose, while still cutting taxes. Simply put, you can't spend money if you don't have it; and when you lower taxes the way Republicans like to do, you don't have money to spend. C9: Framing The GOP enjoys to "framing" bills in a manner that perverts their true meaning. An infamous example of "framing" would be the so-called "Death Tax". The real name of the tax is the Estate Tax, and it only taxes the heirs of large fortunes – it imposes a 35% tax on sums of over 2.2 million, and only applies to 12,000. At first glance, the "Death Tax" sounds like it's a tax on those who die – and that's exactly what Republicans want it to sound like. The flaw in this argument is obvious - the person receiving the thing of value is being taxed - not the giver. Since many GOP politicians fall into this category of wealthy Americans, they framed the bill as the "Death Tax" and created the illusion that it applied to ALL Americans, and that if it passed, all Americans would be taxed when they died. This was an outright lie. The repeal of the Estate Tax has resulted in a tremendous blow to the US deficit; in ten years alone, it will cost the US nearly $1 trillion dollars. A recent example of framing was "death panels"; the notion that there would be a panel of officials who would decide whether a patient would be allowed to live or die. This frame was used in order to scare Americans away from Obama's healthcare overhaul. None of the things it stated were true. --- I strongly urge a PRO vote.