We've Released a Case for Stoa TP

It’s been announcement week, hasn’t it? Drew and I are happy to share with an affirmative case for the Stoa policy resolution: The United States federal government should substantially reform its foreign aid. We recommend this case for upper intermediate/advanced students. You can check out the case here, but first read our strategy notes below.

Print Out Every Link

Print out everything from the links in the case to have on backup. Highlight the relevant text so you can have it on backup. Organize the evidence as you wish, just make sure you have the papers on you.

Funding: We’re Cutting Waste

If your plan costs money, you need to account for the cost. We’re doing so by cutting this navy ship program named the Zumwalt Destroyer Program. It’s been pretty widely criticized for blowing billions on subpar vessels, so it’s a pretty safe option to cut. We have links/evidence available in the footnote that illustrates this in detail: read them so you can be knowledgeable if your opponent asks about it.

Expect Arguments Against Basic Civics

A lot, and we mean a lot of your opponent’s time is going to be spent balking at the mandates. Your mandates very carefully follow standard government procedure. So when your opponent says things like “this new bureau could be corrupt” or “this 5-person panel could be bad” or “we have no idea if this bureau could be too powerful or something”, they’re actually just trying to argue against the way our federal government operates. Most of these speculations will be easily shut down.

“All these dire predictions my opponent is making are simply standard government procedure. If they were true, they would’ve happened centuries ago within any of the other dozen federal bureaus.”

Oh, which reminds me.

Read Up on Basic Civics

As you read through the plan, your attitude is that this is normal and business as usual. When your opponent starts shelling out speculations, you want to dismiss them as mere complaints against civics. However, that won’t be possible if you don’t understand how the government works yourself. Study how Federal Bureaus work so that you can be the expert in the round.

Enjoy!