KSU professors Kenneth White and Melvyn Fein met up Monday night in front of a large crowd of enthusiastic students to debate which candidate would make a better president.
Kenneth White, professor of political science and criminal justice, endorsed Barack Obama. Sociology professor Melvyn Fein advocated Gov. Mitt Romney for president.
The debate, which was
held in a full auditorium of
the Social Science building, was moderated by sociology professor Cristina Gheorghiu- Stephens. White and Fein debated issues which included the economy, taxation, health care, foreign policy, women’s rights, immigration and education.
“Obama fights for the poor, Romney the wealthy,”White said in his opening remarks. “Obama represents the better symbol for a nation of immigrants whose founding theory is opposed to ascribed status and regressive economic policy.”
“I’m not looking for a symbol,” Fein rebutted. “I’m looking for
a president. I’m looking for somebody who can do a job,
a job that needs doing. Our country is in deep trouble. We need somebody that can get us out of this.”
Fein criticized Obama for not keeping the promises he made in his first presidential campaign, calling them empty and vacuous.
The first topic of debate
was the economy. White said electing a president that would resort to the same economic policies that got us into this recession in the first place is unwise.
“George W. Bush inherited a
surplus and when he left, we had a deficit of over a trillion dollars a year and a larger debt,” White said.
Fein said that the Bush-era tax policy is not to blame for our current recession but that it has “much more to do with what the Democrats and Republicans did in terms of financing houses.” He went on to attribute the financial success of the Clinton administration to their decision to lower the capital gains tax, something Romney intends to do if he is elected.
On the issue of taxation, Fein maintained that the worst thing you can do is raise taxes in a recession.
“You don’t raise taxes in a recession. You don’t raise taxes on anyone, including the higher incomes,”
Fein said. “Obama is fond of saying ‘the millionaires and the billionaires’, but no, he wants
to raise taxes on folks making $250 thousand or more, which includes small business owners, the people who create jobs.”
White accused Romney’s plan of cutting taxes 20 percent across the board by closing loopholes and deductions to balance the budget and reduce the debt of not adding up.
“If [the tax plan] is revenue- neutral, then why even bother? We’re still going to be stuck,” White said. “Plus if you add
the military spending increase that they’re not asking for, it’s projected to create a $7 trillion hole in the deficit.”
“If I may use a metaphor,” White continued, “[Romney] is trying to sell us a couch, and telling you that it’s the most comfortable couch in the world but you can’t sit on it until you buy it.”
The professors then began
to explain their respective candidates’ positions on health care. Fein began by saying that health care is a problem in this nation but maintained that we do have the best health care
in the world and it shouldn’t be regulated by the federal government.
“A market system in which millions of people contribute through competition will give us a far better health care system,” Fein said.
White said that if you read Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, you will see that our founding fathers
contemplated regulation. He said that Obama’s not a socialist, but a capitalist who believes that people should be able to play by the same rules.
“It’s easy to make money
if you have money,”White continued. “If you don’t, then it’s hard. You can’t pull yourself up by your own boots if you don’t have boots to begin with.”
White said that Obamacare is not a government takeover of the health care system but a private insurance plan. He likened it to the one proposed by Republican Bob Dole in the ‘90s. He then slammed Romney for declaring that he would repeal Obamacare on his first day in office saying that repealing laws passed by Congress isn’t something you can do as president.
On the topic of education, White said that an Obama administration would spend more money, which would allow more lower-income students to attend school and come out of it with less debt. He said that Mitt Romney wanted to re-privatize educational loans which would ultimately mean fewer Pell Grants for students.
“If tripling and quadrupling the amount of money we spend on education doesn’t constitute throwing money at the problem, I don’t know how many additional multiplications you want,” Fein said. “Evidently more than our country can spare.”
The debate took an interesting turn when the topic of foreign policy was introduced to the debaters. White praised Obama for developing better relationships with our allies abroad while cracking down
on terrorism and protectingAmericans.
Fein criticized Obama for
“praising and sucking up to our enemies” while “abandoning our friends, such as Israel.”
Fein said that Obama was not
a successful foreign policy president , calling him a symbol of weakness and referring
to him as “one of the most obstinate presidents we’ve ever had”
“For such a weak president, it’s striking that all of Romney’s foreign policies are Obama’s policies,”White rebutted.
Fein referenced Obama’s upbringing in Indonesia, saying that he was sympathetic to Muslims because Islam was the first religion he learned. His remark was met with a barrage of boos and hisses from the students in the audience.
“I am unhappy with someone that’s more sympathetic to the Muslim world than to Israel and our president has demonstrated that repeatedly,” Fein said.
He went on to say that there is a “medieval spirit in many
of the Muslim countries in the Middle East.”
“Let me just say that I
don’t think being a Muslim
is negative,”White retorted. “Furthermore, I would just repeat what Colin Powell said in American Heroes which is ‘It’s totally irrelevant . . . that under our Constitution we don’t look at someone’s religion.’”
On the subject of having a strong military, Fein said that it is vital to protect our borders.
“This is not a peaceful
world. Look around you. If we dismantle our army, within
a decade we’d be speaking Spanish because the Mexicans would be marching north. If we could not defend our borders, they would be coming over here almost immediately,” Fein said.
White reminded Fein that Obama has increased military spending every year, adding that he’s focused resources, and in doing so, has made the military stronger.
