Our Platform for Outlining Colorado’s Future

  Reasons to agree : We are broke.  Federal jobs have typically had better benefits, but they did not make as much as private sector jobs. Even people who work for the government should acknowledge that our country is going to have a bad future, if our best and brightest work for the government.   With projections of huge federal deficits for years to come, policymakers should scour the budget looking for places to cut spending The OWS protest should look to government with anger at their compensation more so than looking at CEOs.  During the last decade, compensation of federal employees rose much faster than compensation of private-sector employees. The average federal civilian worker now earns twice as much in wages and benefits as the average worker in the U.S. private sector. A recent job-to-job comparison found that federal workers earned higher wages than did private-sector workers in four-fifths of the occupations examined. It is unfair to ask taxpa...

A picture says a thousand words. Why would we keep them out of a debate? Why not have the top 10 pictures that support AND oppose the same issue. Of course images are returned to Google based on an algorithm, images that have higher scores will contribute more power to the idea.

Reasons to agree : The federal government is too big.  Federal spending should not exceed 20% of GDP  (+5). Score : # of reasons to agree: 1 # of reasons to disagree: -0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: 0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: - 0 Total Idea Score: 1 Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change

Reasons to agree : (+6) We should return federal programs to the states . Each state should be responsible for caring for their own uninsured . The way medicaid is ran now, it is a right. It is an entitlement. People are gauronteed medicaid, no matter what. People get medicaid, even if the cost doubles every year. With block grants, medical inflation can be limited, but putting a limit that each state gets from the federal program.  We can make it so each state that wants to increase the Medicaid benefit by $1, has to spend an extra dollar.  Score : # of reasons to agree: 3 # of reasons to disagree: -0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: 6 # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: - 0 Total Idea Score: 10 Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change

Reasons to agree : The states are better at innovation than the federal government. The states are better at cost management than the federal government.  When each state has their own program efficiency is improved because people don't see it as free money from other states that they compete with. Each dollar is  valued  more.  The states are better at reduction of fraud than the federal government.  When each state has their own program fraud is reduced because the people running the program don't see it as free money from other states that they compete with. Each dollar is  valued  more.  The 10th amendment doesn't give the federal government the right to have social programs. The founding fathers did not like a very strong centralized power. They tried to prevent the type of government that we have become.  When each state has their own program efficiency is improved because those giving out the benefits are closer to ...

Reasons to agree : Government spending should be limited to essential programs The U.S. government should eliminate all non-essential spending. Test for necessity: "Is this program so critical that it is worth borrowing money to pay for it?" If a program is not essential to national security or economic prosperity, it should be cut. The U.S. has valid national interests America competes for resources, alliances, and global influence against regimes that oppose human rights and democracy. Supporting adversarial nations undermines U.S. values and strategic interests. Aid should align with American ideals, rewarding good behavior and discouraging bad behavior. The U.S. cannot afford unnecessary foreign aid The U.S. is trillions of dollars in debt, making it irresponsible to fund nations that do not support American goals. Prioritizing domestic economic stability is more important than financing adversaries. Aid to hostile nations strengthens opposition to the U.S. North Korea, f...

Reasons to agree : We should eliminate every government program that is not absolutely essential. There are many things government does that we may like but that we do not need. The test should be this: " Is this program so critical that it is worth borrowing money to pay for it ?" The federal government should stop doing things we don't need or can't afford.  It is wrong to take money from someone and give it to a cause that they feel is murder. We can't make arguments about how much some program may save us money in the future, we need to balance our budget now. Arguments about how such-and-such program might actually save the government money are always theoretical. Not spending the money in the 1st place will save 100% of the money that you don't spend.   Reasons to disagree : Mothers that don't really want their children, will raise children more likely to commit crime.  In the long run government money spend on family planning will result in less gov...

Reasons to agree : It doesn't matter that more money is spent on roads, and air travel than amtrak, because more people travel these methods. The simple fact is that more is spent per mile traveled per person, with each dollar given to amtrak, vs. other methods of Government spending.  According to the United States Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, rail and mass transit are considerably more subsidized on a per passenger-mile basis by the federal government than other forms of transportation; the subsidy varies year to year, but exceeds $100 dollars (in 2000 dollars) per thousand passenger-miles, compared to subsidies around $10 per thousand passenger-miles for aviation (with general aviation subsidized considerably more per passenger-mile than commercial aviation), subsidies around $4 per thousand passenger-miles for intercity buses, and automobiles being a small net contributor through the gas tax and other user fees rather than being subsid...

Reasons to agree : Because we are in debt we must examine all expenses and ask "Is this program so critical that it is worth borrowing money to pay for it?" 20% of GDP is near the tax revenue our economy generates when healthy.  In 2010 federal spending accounted for 24.3% of federal spending.  The federal government should not spend more on social programs than the states.   We can cut 1/2 of a trillion dollars from the 2016 federal budget.   Score : # of reasons to agree: 5 # of reasons to disagree: -0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: 0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: - 0 Total Idea Score: 5 Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change

Reasons to agree :  Debt can kill us. Videos That agree Score : # of reasons to agree: 1 # of reasons to disagree: -0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: 0 # of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: - 0 Total Idea Score: 1 Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change

Reasons  to agree: Racism is hatred of those that are different. You can't assume that those who feel that our country will be benefited by opposing gay marriage or motivated by hate.  Not all people who oppose gay marriage are bad people, but all racist are bad people.  Victims of racism and homophobia experience similar treatment, but from a political standpoint you can't just say that because one form of discrimination was bad, that all forms of discrimination is bad. Some forms of discrimination are good. It is good to discriminate against people who do bad things. We may disagree about what is a bad activity, but we will all agree that some activities should be discouraged... I know, I know what you want me to do... you want me to give an example of a very bad activity, and then you will scream at me and say how dare I compare being gay to doing that bad activity, and I will say, I wasn't comparing the two, I was...

Reasons to agree: When you give money to try and help ex-cons get a job, someone else will not get that job. Maybe they will get another job, but at least some of the times the person that didn't get the job needed it more.  Even your ability to be kind is a resource. Maybe not little things like saying thank you, and stuff, but everyone has limited time in a day.  You can show compassion, but when you are in debt, your only responsibility is to get out of debt.  Reasons to disagree: Sometimes you can show compassion, when it doesn't involve money, that helps people, but won't hurt anyone else.  Probable interest of those who agree: They agree with the argument, outside of any interest or alterior motivation (30%) Confirmation bias (you decide that you don't like Obama, and so this becomes the prism that you see him. People always root for the home team, because over time they start to show interest, and then each new story tells them they were correct. When the o...