October Presidential Election Debate

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Because of work tomorrow afternoon and concern that I might get swept out to sea by the wrath of the ocean tempist, it looks like I am going first.

To begin with, I want to thank Enduro for hosting this debate as well my distinguished opponents Senator Blair and Secretary Rpryor for joining me for this occassion to discuss the most pressing issues facing our country.

Back in May we saw the ratification of the Fourth Constitution and with it all the reforms it consisted of. This was a great accomplishment for Atlasia, but as I warned at the time and continue to state, reform only enables activity, it will not produce it. Atlasia is suffering today to the extent that is because we have had an activity bubble burst, I recently spoke to this both to its similarities to the economy and its economic impacts. I also spoke to solutions both at the regional and federal level.

Some of these solutions are shared by my opponents, while others we might disagree on. Overall we need both a surge in membership, as well as to attempt to diversify our membership, so as to flatten our these cycles of activity somewhat. We need a combination of new ideas and some old gems that worked well to provide us guidance to address this and other problems. For instance, six years ago, the Fritz Administration championed a recruitment task force that was small, extremely focused, directly led and served to bring in some very talented Atlasians (and also a certain short corporal with a suspenders problem, but that was going to happen with or without this task force obviously).

I also addressed both how the President can influence activity indirectly at the regional level by mobilizing the public and creating innovations, and directly at the federal level. This is demonstrated by how I would organize my cabinet using similar fundamentals that were successfully deployed to compose and pass the successful pre-legislative reset healthcare law after months of stagnation. This requires a combination of leadership, focus, experience and determination that I have utilized on multiple projects and with great success over the years. Regular "productive interactions", responsiveness to Game Moderation and focusing on achieving results by working with members of Congress. I have demonstrated my experience with the first of these above, also my long experience in trying to improve game moderation forms a critical understanding on how important it is to integrate the work of the GM into the game. Finally, I was most proud of having worked with such diverse people from all ideologies in the Senate to get results.

I have said we need to create “A More Welcoming Atlasia”, I selected this as my theme because it embodies our quest for diversity, for new ideas, for working productively to achieve results and the desire for competence on the part of our officials. It is my deep concern that we will not just fail to move forward but that we could backslide into the old mudslinging and personal attacks. Atlasia has come too far in my opinion since the July Anarchy to head back to a sad discourse that discouraged so many in the years leading up to that climax of chaos.

I look forward to discussing these issues further and others both domestic and foreign over the course of this debate.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Yankee, a big part of this campaign is questions over the Vice President position, will you reform the position, and with who?

The key to the Vice Presidency is making sure it has an active roll to play in the capacity as Vice President. I know one of my distinguished opponents wants them to serve as one of the cabinet post and that is a great idea. However, it doesn't really operate on activity in the capacity of Vice President.  

As I said in my speech the other day, we got the VP active once before by increasing their involvement with the Senate. There is a roll that has been unexplored with regards to the Congress in the VP's capacity as President of the Congress under the new constitution, I would like to explore those with my VP. I would like the VP to be involved in decision making and able to handle situations if they arise. One thing that I have been made painfully aware of this past few days is you don't know what can happen and and the VP has to be ready to step in at a minutes notice.

As for with who, my hope is to have my choice rolled out tonight baring further utility interruptions from the storm/flooding.

For all the candidates, what will be the Game Moderator's role in your administration?

The Game Moderator is going to be the apex on which the administration operates. My general plan is to have the SoIA/SOS reacting on an ongoing basis to the events and information that the Game Moderator provides. I plan to make every report from the GM a priority point of concern for relevant members of my administration and the cabinet as whole. We have done better in recent times with the Game Moderators, and my hope is that we can continue to have that be the case and make improvements even more from that basis. So much regarding the Congress and the cabinet hinges on the GM, as do the regional functions. And there is tremendous opportunity and potential that I would like to have those bodies take advantage of with a solid and active Game Moderator in place.

From the beginning, I have always been a fan of a bold and creative Game Moderation and one thing that always comes up whenever we do go in that direction is that there is push back. I understand there is a level that goes too far, but we need creativity and we need people to both respect the creativty and respond to it in a way that benefits and drives the game forward.

For all the candidates, how will you encourage Regional Governments to become, and remain, more active?

Well we have to respect the Constitution and start from that basis. We cannot dictate to the regions. What we can do is provide an example and encourage and assist with innovations in how things are done. Like localized party systems, which was an idea that came up a few days ago.

The President and the administration also can help regions and their authorities react and respond both to the GM and to administrative decisions made by the SoIA and other departments that impact them. This will create the necessary interaction that will in fact encourage and expand activity.

Also there are ways to involve regional decision making in federal legislation. These have great potential, but you need to have awareness and this was something that was lacking when we did healthcare in 2014. Many opportunities would missed because the awareness was not present at the regional level despite the best efforts of myself and others. As and administration, I would make it my goal to ensure that all Governors/Regional legislature are aware of federal legislation that affects them or invites them into the process. It should be noted that this kind of thing can get complex and like with healthcare, we did our best to keep the section simple and at the top of the text, which is something that Congress should be mindful of when it comes to creating regional involved processes in legislation.

And from there we need to get the public engaged and active, because from there activity becomes an election issue as well and the President can raise awareness and help to inspire movements.  I talked about this in the speech in Houston, and described examples relating to court reform about how you can draw attention to problems and get public opinion moving towards a particular outcome. As President I would seek to do this in a variety of areas, but especially when it comes to regions. This gets back to the awareness regarding not just legislation but also with regards to the Constitution to ensure they are taking full advantage of the powers at their disposal to create a dynamic game play environment.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Firstly, what do you seek to do in regards to foreign policy if you are elected? Would you seek to pass a Common Market Agreement between Atlasia and the United Kingdom, such as the one that is currently being discussed between the Secretary of State and the British Government?

My foreign policy will be one of restraint and realism. I plan to listen to all the voices, and I plan to act cautiously before entangling Atlasia into something we can neither afford nor will benefit Atlasia in the long run. I think we need to focus on destroying ISIS and providing stability throughout the Middle East, but there are ways in which we need to go about doing it. I understand and respect the desire to spread democracy all around the globe, but it is just simply not realistic nor practical to plant democracy by the force of Atlasian tanks where it does not have domestic support. Insead we should look to combat those forces to pose a threat to stability and work collaboratively with reasonable partners in the region, while at the same time avoiding becoming beholden to the interests that might run counter to our own, such as those of Iran for instance. We do have allies and we are obligated to defend them and we will. As for experience, some of the first legislation I worked on were trade deals back in 2009. I was in the Senate when the Atlasia-Canada Common Market was proposed and passed a few years back as well. There have also been numerous instances pertaining to Iraq  where pre-reset the situation had transpired differently and worked intensly on over the years. Finally, and I hope we get to talk more about this later on in the debate, but issues pertaining to our military from difficulties facing activity duty personal because of red tape, all way up to activity duty and veterans healthcare, military spending levels and mental health are areas where I have worked extensively on in the past.

As I said in my speech in San Diego, I support the broad concept of a deal with the UK. However, as I also said in San Diego, the details need to be considered carefully. It is in our interest to strengthen the position of UK through our economic power and that regardless of what anyone's preference might have been the fact of the matter is that Brexit is a reality, be it an unfortunate one or a delightful one, opinions differ in our country. In terms of our foreign policy, the UK is a critical ally in combating Terrorism and also a key member of NATO. It is simply not in our interest to let the UK decline, obviously. Now of course we have to mindful of the conditions of Brexit as they are unfolding and we don't know all the details yet and therefore making a treaty in this environment needs to consider the potential realities of an as yet unfined situation as it pertains to Europe.

Finally, we would be remiss to not talk about foreign policy as it relates to the game play and game moderation. There has been for years talk of making foreign policy more relevant and it has traditionally fallen into that trap of resistance to bold, creavitivity on the part of the Game Moderator. As I have defended such creativity, I have also defended the integration of foreign policy events to a greater degree into this game. As a candidate in game, my desire would be to avoid war at all cost, but for a game play perspective it is just one of many aspects of foreign policy that would created an interesting and new dynamic for the game to experience. We had the short lived situation with South America for instance, whereby we had a chance for a diplamtic interaction, but unfortunately that opportunity passed by largely because the South American Simulation collapsed in the Game Board. That would have created a whole new dynamic of diplomatic interaction had there been a way to preserve both games on this site, but unfortunately that proved impratical. I would like to see new ways of making foreign policy more interactive and involved into the game and not just a statement from the Game Moderator. Even so, limited to the Game Moderation, like all such reports, my administration will make responsiveness from the SoS and the administration as a whole to such events a priority as well as interacting with Congress as legislation is deemed necessary by such events.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Additionally, how would you set out to reform healthcare? The Congressional Committee on healthcare has discussed a number of options that could be considered, do you support any of them?

I was one of only two nays on the original Fritzcare bill back in 2009, and was a supporter of the reforms back in 2012. However neither of these bills were functionally adequate and both had problems, which was a big source of my initial opposition in 2009, as well as disagreements with the structure of the system. In spite of those disagreements I worked as best as I could to help improve that bill at the time. I also worked with Senators Scott, MoPolitico and President Napoleon on the 2012 bill in the hopes of getting a significant improvement. Progress was made, but the bill still had flaws and a better law was necessary.

Throughout early 2014, there was a great degree of awareness that the 2012 bill also had glaring flaws. We had a committee of sorts, on the AFE board instead of the Congressional setup, and it ground to a halt because of partisan disagreements. It was a bill composed by Potus that sparked the next round of the debate in the Spring of that year, but it to ground to a halt in the Senate. Finally I decided to push forward and managed to get President Duke, Senator shua and Senator Lumine together in a chat room for about six hours. We hammered out a deal, and got it through the Senate quickly with Duke's signature before he left office.

I do have my own preferred model and it is similar to the bill we past pre-legislative reset. A market based system administered with regional involvement and some degree of regional involvement in determining the amount and form of competition, with subsidization for those who cannot afford healthcare, seniors, vets active duty etc on a sliding scale basis. However, as I said in the committee, the world is much different post reset and many things still exist. For instance Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare had already been folded into the national healthcare system prior to 2014 and therefore the reforms easily picked up with that already the case. That is not where we are at now post-reset.  We also had a situation where the 2009 bill had basically wiped out most private insurance because of its flaws and therefore had a great deal of flexibility, since the great disruption had already been incurred years prior. This time we have to consider the disruptive effects will be much larger this time and take precautions to iminimize the impact on families and individuals.

As much as I like that system, it is the product of bill formualted by the key players in a room back in 2014. The key to success is to adopt a similar model for how to derive such a bill. Hopefully myself as President, Senator Scott, Kingpoleon, my opponents of course, as well as the leadership in both houses need to be in a room and get on the same page with the same bill. It is going to be harder this time because their are more key players and a greater diversity of opinion at that table, but I am confident it is the best way to overcome those differences and get a final product out.

Lastly, I want to quickly touch on mental healthcare because it is often forgotten and this is an issue I have worked on for three years and hits close to home for me. One of the biggest transitions we had is the move towards out patient care, and that has has saved a lot of money and worked for many people, but it has also created severe shortages when it comes to those who need in partient care and their are massive shortages of beds numbering in the hundreds of thousands. This is a crisis that too often gets ignore and we need to work with the regions to reform our delivery and ensure that the necessary resources are there. In some many cases this leads to drug addiction and homelessness where people that should be cared for in a regulated facility are living on the street. The are ways we can address shortages of qualified doctors both in general practice and when it comes to mental health using technology and that is something that needs to be invested in generally, but I will say again, some people need in person treatment and they need a degree of care that present resource levels and facilities are falling way way short of.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Finally, the latest figures suggest that our debt to GDP ratio is now over 100%, how would you structure the budget in order to start reducing the deficit and the national debt, while expanding the economy?

As someone who joined during one of the deepest recessions in RL history, I can say no issue has commanded as much attention as the economy has over the past several years in this game. I have structured tough banking regulations, I have voted for stimulus bills, I have crafted legislation twice to provide emergency lines of credit to small business, I have passed laws to protect consumers from ID theft and worked on many infrastructure bills. In Duke Presidency, I supported and helped with his business tax reform and we tried to reform personal income taxes but were not able to do so before he left office. I have supported reasonable minimum wage proposals and opposed those that were excessive (like $20 an hour excessive).

Also, as I have noted in my Houston and Anaheim speeches, one of the biggest impacts on the economy has been from inactivty/incompetence at the federal and regional level. We see this happening right now with unemployment creeping up because of inactivity. One of the first steps to strengethning the economy is to indeed to work to correct these problems of activity on the regional and federal level because there is an undeniable connection that has been repeatedly established between the two.

Next we dod need to make targetted investments, but these should be funded in my opinion. I plan to make a big speech in the near future on flood mitigation and Hurricane preparedness and there is a lot of problems ith earthern dams and rivers and such that could use a significant investment to reduce the risk of flooding in the future. We also need to invest in technology to reduce our use of fossil fuels and oils because frankly, regardless of who is causing it, Climate change is real and we need to do something about it. The key to changing massively this usage is the development of affordable technologies that significantly increase fuel efficiency and remain price competitive and in reach of our poorest citizens, who sometimes get forgotten in these discussions.

Beyond that, we need to reform healthcare in way that addresses systemic inflation accross the board and thereby drives up our debt and deficts via Medicaid and Medicare. The market cannot handle certain segments of the market like vets/seniors because of risk pricing, on the other hand, the absence of market competition allows prices to skyrocket. This was what made the 2014 bill so successfully is that it had a market competing public option, combined with subsidies and regulation and together all three helped address this problem without harming those in most need of medical care.

Just like in real life we need to change the way the government purcheses stuff. It starts with ending no bid contracts not just in the defense department but across the board in all deptartments to ensure price/quality competition for all government contracting. It means that use we should allow Medicare to negotiate prsecription drug prices and extending that across the board where applicable to ensure that the federal government is getting a good deal for the taxpayers.

We also need to be cautious on how we spend our money overseas and making sure that we are not sinking trillions of dollars into conflicts that gain us nothing.

Responsible Entitlement Reform, a more cautious foreign policy and reforms to government contracting/bidding/negotiating will change massively our budgetary situation and ensure that we are moving towards a balanced budget.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Closing Remarks

I'll be straightforward with Atlasians. It was never my plan to run in this Presidential election.  However, one bright Saturday morning, I came on raring to do my best to assist another candidate only to find out that he was not only no longer a candidate, but no longer an Atlasian.

My first thoughts were to him and his situation. Soon, I realized just how fragile our accomplishments this past year are. We have lost so much time and so much opportunity, but something bigger, Atlasia has been left exposed not only to the inactivity backslide that my opponent mentions, but also a backslide in hospitality. From Sept 30th to this weekend, my concern has only grown and I loath to think about us returning to the old ways and bitter tactics, that divided us and drove so many to quit, will return.

I am running for President, not only because we need to stand up against and fight inactivity, but also because we need to take a stand and say unequivocally that we want Atlasia to be as welcoming as possible. That starts with avoiding a return to the gutter of 2013, but it goes much further than that.

We need to reach out to new players and have them join as productive and engaged members and to old players interested in playing the game once more and I have put out a model for how to do that with a small, focused, bipartisan task force.

However, we must do so with a eye towards standards and whether you are orange or red, or wear some other color shirt that there has to be an expectation of fairness and respect. I have seen the best and the worst. I have seen extreme reactions of overbearing restrictions on membership, voting requirements and voter removal (from failing to vote) to the laxity induced loophole abuse. I think this experience will help guide me in determining the best path right down the middle, to protect fairness and yet make Atlasia as welcoming as possible in our laws.

I have more experience than anyone in working to revitalize regions, in creating mutually respectful relationships between Federal and Regional levels, not overbearing mandates, and I will use this help assist regions to take fullest advantage of their powers and responsibilities, assist them in creating better laws and working to keep a steady flow of people to staff regional legislatures (recruitment task force above).

I am the only candidate in this race who has actually made the Vice Presidency work as constituted and as the longest serving Senate PPT in Atlasian history, I know both how to make the Vice Presidency work as President of Congress, but also how to involve the Vice President in other areas based on his/her most pressing interests to ensure activity and presence. I can extend this experience to the cabinet. I have worked and struggled with more active and inactive cabinet members than any President has ever had to deal with. I know the value of effective communication and will have my cabinet both responsive to game moderation and cohesive as a team.

I am the only candidate who has used such collaboration and communication to unite members of four different parties to actually pass a functional Healthcare reform that works, that involves the regions and is market based. This is experience that will not only directly affect the passage both healthcare and mental healthcare reforms, but also how I will effectively engage the cabinet and the Congress to pass legislation.

I have the deepest respect for my opponent in this race. He does indeed have many qualifications. I trust that feeling is mutual. However, I will say this, my record of dogged determination when it comes to accomplishing a objective is unmatched. When others said quit, I fought my way back. When people said my Party was dead (twice over), I dug in and led two great teams of people to fight our way back. When they said Atlasia was hopeless and others had given up or were "removed from the equation", I fought on. While some can mock the difficulties I have had to overcome just to participate in this game, no one can say I haven't fought as hard or as long as I have just to be able to participate in this game. You can be assured, I will do everything in my power to revitalize it on a comprehensive basis and I hope you will join me in finally achieving, A More Welcoming Atlasia!