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About Me
- mbertola
- Hi everyone! My name is Mrs. Bertola and I have been teaching at WTHS for 13 years. I am currently teaching AP Government and am excited to continue our classroom discussion on Blogger.com. I live in Illinois with my husband and son--but I am originally from Wisconsin and LOVE all WI sports teams. I went to Lake Forest College and played basketball there. I coached girls b-ball for 10 years but took a break from it after my son's birth. You will learn a lot more about me as the year goes on!
Both of the canidates did a good job taking about the issues. Robert Dold talked about how we need to be more competative in the business category and how our coorporate taxes are very high. Brad Schneider talked about how there were too many tax cuts on the rich and that was causing the middle classes taxes to be very high. Also a big topic was preserving Lake Michigan and both canidates want to preserve the lake. I think Robert Dold did a little better than Brad Schneider and was more prepared. He had more information. They also disscussed the problem with Libya and Schneider commended Obama for killing Osama Bin Laden. They demonstrated federalism by talking about how they work with the federal government to make policies that benefit us in Illinois. Overall the canidates did a good job and it was a good debate.
ReplyDeleteThis debate seemed a lot more relaxed, which is good. During the presidential debates, it was hard to understand their arguments because they were constantly attacking each other’s policies and actions. This congressional debate was more straightforward, focusing solely on each candidate’s plan of action for the given issues. Overall, I believe that Robert Dold did a better job arguing his points. Although Schneider had better clarity and spoke a bit louder, Dold had much more information and had multiple examples to support his claims. From what I watched, there were not many differences between Dold and Schneider’s opinions. Both agree that drilling in Michigan would be disastrous to both the economy and environment. Both agree that sending immigrants back to their native country after graduating from an American university is a waste of valuable innovative thinking and workforce. Both also agree upon the idea that business must be improved through a focus on education and manufacturing; Children need to be kept in school, and engineers need to be given jobs to improve our economy. Dold spoke often of working together with the different levels of government in order to achieve the desired goals; Schneider insisted that small businesses must be given assistance in order to become successful. Dold stressed the importance of creating a cleaner environment that also helps to increase jobs and boost the economy. I agree with many of the points Dold brought up, and enjoyed this debate. :)
ReplyDeletePersonally I found that the two candidates were very similar in their approaches (besides certain things like taxes). I think it is a wonderful thing to know that no matter who is elected into office on November 6th we will get a representative who will protect the environment, value small businesses, help in the naturalization process, and reach across the isle to find bi-partisan solutions for these issues. After watching about thirty minuets of the debate I felt like the candidates were saying things that made them seem so different and partisan, but when I replayed or listened closely, they were basically saying the same thing. Both of these men want to get the job done and America's problems dealt with and their apparent willingness to do whatever it takes to solve these problems through cooperation does give me some hope in getting out of this gridlock Washington is trapped in. I will say that I agree with Schneider in raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to help level the income gap. Overall, I think that this debate was very relaxed, a lot less heated, and I look forward to the results come November 6th. I think that both candidates will / would do a fantastic job and wish them both the best on election day and the years following.
ReplyDeleteTo begin, as the two candidates were different in their view points as expected, they were very similar in their views of helping small businesses. Both candidates, more so Dold, want to lower taxes for the small business owners as these companies fuel the economy. What I would like to have heard more of were the details of each candidate's plans. For the plans that were described, they were saying opposite facts about things such as drilling in the great lakes. Therefore, I have no idea as to which candidate to believe- a lot of fact checking is necessary. Now for specifics on Dold. One thing I noticed was his tone. He used words such as "preposterous" and heavily criticized Schneider. The fact that he said we have the "worst environment plan" right now is too radical for my beliefs. It is a bit far fetched. I also feel like he is bragging. He said he has received many awards in politics so far- he is just trying to win support. However, I do like Dold's plan to stop the off-coast drilling that is happening as it pollutes the water and the beach in which it encompasses. I believe there is a more environment friendly way to drill for oil. Also one more thing to note, Dold said "I do not know about Romney's 20 percent tax cut plan". To not know about this really shows me a lack of knowledge in the realm of the election. For both candidates, I truly want to know what what loopholes are being eliminated and how they are being eliminated. It is easy to say that you will do something. Now for specifics on the Schneider campaign. I like his idea to simplify the tax code. However, he talks about taking people off of unemployment role and creating new jobs. How? He never truly answers this question. I also found that his arguments were largely comprised of criticizing Dold's plans. This is needed in a debate, but it got to a point where he was criticizing Dold on things he never said. Schneider said, "you support a tax cut for the people who need it the most." This is not what he said, and based on what he said, there is no foundation to that argument. For both candidates, I feel an overall need to fact check as there was a lot of opposite statistics being described. I need to know what is the truth. It will be a close election for these candidates as it will be for the presidential candidate.
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