The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: News

GINGREY

"Gee, I wish Congress could hear this," Georgia U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey whispered during the Roosevelt Institution's policy presentations for the perfect 2008 presidential platform.

Gingrey said Congress members should take a lesson from Roosevelt Institution participants, who demonstrated in a two-day conference that the perfect 2008 presidential platform transcends political partisanship.

"So many members of Congress are unwilling to even consider policies presented by members of another affiliation, knowing already they will disagree with them," Gingrey said.

But incidentally, cross-partisan harmony resonated throughout the Roosevelt Institution's deliberations during the weekend.

Approximately 75 students traveled from schools across the nation to debate conservative, moderate and liberal policies on five major issues that are influencing the 2008 presidential election - energy, taxes, the war in Iraq, immigration and health care.

Friday afternoon, the students broke into groups monitored by professors to form their policy arguments in accordance with an assigned partisanship.

At 9 a.m Saturday, the student groups presented their respective policies, which were voted on by all participants.

The groups with the prevailing platforms for each topic presented their policies to policy experts Gingrey, associate of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, former University professor Margaret Holt and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Jere Morehead.

During the forum, even seasoned experts found common ground and agreed on what are usually partisan policies.

The elected energy policy platform was liberal and argued for energy independence with a transition to renewable, sustainable and carbon-free resources. The group proposed a carbon and oil tax to provide revenue for research on alternative resources and government programs to facilitate the transition economically.

On taxes, a conservative platform won the vote. This group emphasized the complexity of the 65,000-page current tax code, which disadvantages lower income families who don't understand how to benefit from the program. They called for tax code simplification with special regard to equity.

The moderate platform that won the vote for the war in Iraq promoted accountability and transparency through engaging rhetoric, regional negotiations to share financial responsibility and gradual redeployment of U.S. forces with the succession of Iraqi forces.

Continued...

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