Thoughts first debates of 2019

I had a few quick thoughts to share over the two nights of debate. For the first night, I think all the contestants pretty much won. With two small exceptions. Overall, I don’t think the big hitters per say, like Elizabeth Warren, successfully lifted themselves further from the crowd, but her performance was fine.

I think the only one who didn’t perform fantastic was Beto O'rourke. First he was asked “yes or no, do you support a 70% tax rate on the highest income earners. He failed on two occasions to answer this question. This is a big minus points in my book. You have to answer the question. sure, there is some benefit in not taking policy position too quickly, but this is a policy blog. This is what we are all about. Additionally, Beto seems to come across as young and inexperienced with his exchange with Mayor De Blasio.

The was one candidate that seems to rise a little higher than the rest, and that is Julian Castro. Castro was no body prior to entering this debate, at least, I hadn’t even heard of him, and I run a politics blog! His strongest point in my opinion was his closing statement. I thought he even had some of the vocal qualities of Barack Obama, at the very least, he seemed to evoke the image of Obama in my mind.

I think the next night was a little more difficult to follow. The candidates were a little more unruly and have less thoughts on this. I was, however, very glad to see Andrew Yang on the debate stage. I thought some of his performance was a little lackluster. Like having the moderator repeat the question on universal basic income was a little bit of a flop. This was pretty much the perfect tee up for Yang, and while his response wasn’t a bad, he didn’t blow it out of the park. Personally, I think one way to address the issue of funding the freedom dividend, is to talk about all the programs we can cut and where we can save money. For example, as I mentioned in UBI the Solution to Homelessness a single homeless person can cost $31,000 or more a year. Clearly, $12,000 is much less than that. So why might less more help more? Well one because the free market can create solutions and two, prevention is worth much more than cure. With money in their pockets, homeless people can afford a small micro home. They can buy basic nutrition, and avoid costly hospital visits. I think discussing a VAT was a mistake.

Overall, I enjoyed listening to both nights of debates and I am excited for what comes next.