MOUNT VERNON — Although it is still early in the 2012 presidential race, guests to Monday night’s Up for Discussion expressed frustration toward current candidates who refuse to spell out their “plan” to fix the nation’s economy.
The consensus of the participants was that Herman Cain, former president and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, has been the only candidate to outline a financial plan. Cain proposes to initiate a 9-9-9 plan that will create a 9 percent business flat tax, a 9 percent individual income flat tax and a 9 percent national sales tax.
Several in attendance stressed they were interested in knowing how the candidates felt about immigration laws, especially Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
A conversation regarding Social Security and whether or not the government has the right to dip into the well to fill other funding holes evolved into a conversation regarding welfare and whether or not more strict limits need to be placed on the length and amount of assistance.
“It’s a broader problem. You will never be able to stop it,” one man said. “To keep people from continuing to be on the system, you need to be able to educate people so they can get out and get jobs that will support their family.”
“People need to help themselves. We need less do-gooders,” another person added.
It was suggested that local entities establish their own rules and guidelines that better fit into the needs of local communities instead of allowing someone in an office miles away determine what is needed and what is not.
The group also discussed the idea that elementary schools are no longer required to teach cursive handwriting.
Many people in attendance did not see a need for the practice as most writing today takes place electronically. However, there was opposition within the group that questioned whether or not future students would be able to read historic documents like the Constitution that were written in cursive.
The final topic for the night was related to hydrofracking and how much water is involved in the process. A gentleman in the audience discussed a newspaper article he read recently that detailed 80,000 gallons of water is used during the drilling process, another 3.8 million gallons are used to frack and 1 million gallons are taken out of the well in 200 trucks.
Up for Discussion is held the third Monday of every month from 7 to 8:15 p.m. at Sips’ downtown location.
