Survey of Affirmatives

1. Survey of Affirmatives By Garrett Halydier Liberty Debate Institute

2. The Resolution Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase social services for persons living in poverty in the United States.

3. What We Know So Far • The United States Federal Government should do something • That something: Increase (substantially) social services • For whom: Persons living in poverty (at least 2) • Anything else? Yep, they have to live in the United States…

4. Lets Start at the Beginning • The United States federal government (in whole or in part) will do something. • Most Affs will use the whole thing like normal. However, this year you are slightly more likely to see an Aff that only uses a certain branch or certain agency. • Why? Some will do it just to confuse you, others because their solvency ev says to, and possibly others in an effort to create a Fed key warrant (but more on that later).

5. Now It’s Later • Very nearly the most important part of any affirmative you create is the Federal Government key warrant • Ev should advocate Federal action and make a comparative claim of some sort that explains why the Federal government is better at creating or managing your social service • Find it. • I have nothing else to add. Find it.

6. The Action of the Resolution • Increase (substantially) Social Services. • We have several options: • Increase money to an existing program • Create a new program • Reform an existing program • Extend a program to new recipients • ??? But Which Programs ??? • (Cause that’s the real reason your here…)

7. Social Services: Part 1 (of many) • The following are all easily defined as Social Services • Employment Assistance • Medicare • Medicaid • Education Reform • Physician Assisted Suicide • Child Abuse Programs • Childcare (daycare) assistance • College Tuition assistance • Domestic violence assistance • Lead/Asbestos Information/Assistance

8. Social Services: Part 2 (Still Going) • Assistance for the Elderly • Energy Assistance (Clean or Otherwise) • Head Start • Healthcare • Homeless Shelters • Faith Based Organization (FBO) Funding • National Food Bank • Immigrant Assistance Services • Job Training • 20. Expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (or other tax credits

9. Social Services: Part 3 (And Going) • Legal Aid • Marriage Promotion • Deconcentration - Housing(HUD, HOPE VI, MTO) • Prenatal Care • Prison (Services, Reform, Employment) • Mental Health Services • Disability Services • Food Stamps • Government Employment • Addiction Care/Counseling

10. Social Services: Part 4 (More…) • Public Transit • Maiming Injury Services (Workman’s Comp) • Community Health Clinics • Community Development Block Grants • Tax Credits • Adoption/Foster Home Reform • Death Penalty Reform • Emergency Contraceptive Services • HIV/AIDS Assistance • Minimum Wage

11. Social Services: Part 4 (Finally…) • 41. National Parks • 42. English Classes (ESL) • 43. School Lunches • 44. Clothing Programs • 45. Emergency Services • 46. Affirmative Action Policies • 47. Internet Access • 48. And many variations of the above… • In Sum…

13. Now to Hit the Highlights • The resolution does not require your affirmative to reduce poverty! • Its still OK if you do. • In the following notice that many of the impacts are very, very interrelated • And the Main Attraction: Advantage Areas

14. Advantage Areas • There are obviously way too many Social Services for me to go through and explain the case structure for each one, if you are interested in a particular area write it down now and ask me about it in the Q&A Session at the end of the lecture. • In lieu of the aforementioned hyper-specificity here are examples of the most common advantages available for your enjoyment this next year.

15. Advantage Areas • Poverty (You knew it was coming) • Structure: • Uniqueness: People are in poverty now w/o (insert your social service here)  • Link: Lucky for them doing your plan (social service) brings people out of poverty! • MPX: If not bad things might happen: • Dehumynization, loss of US competiveness, poor education, no hegemony, hunger, HIV/AIDS, terrorism, endless suffering, and death.

16. Advantage Areas 2. Economy (Healthcare, education, tax credits, housing…) Structure: Uniqueness: The economy is low now (for many reasons possibly related to your social service) Link: Your plan boosts the economy (provides jobs, education, healthy workers, motivation, etc) MPX: Economic downturn  Nuclear War (And probably turns the DA’s)

17. Advantage Areas • Health (Healthcare, injury comp, housing…) • Structure: • Uniqueness: People are suffering/dying now because they can’t afford medicine or healthcare, or because poverty  more sickness • Link: Plan solves one of the above problems • MPX: People get better, dehumynization is bad, quality of life good, racism bad

18. Advantage Areas 4. Food Security/Hunger (Food programs, housing, education…) Structure: Uniqueness: People in poverty are hungry/can’t afford food Link: Plan (social service) gives people access to food (food stamps, school lunch, jobs, cheap food…) MPX: Food Wars are bad, hunger is dehumynizing, no quality of life, starving people die…

19. Advantage Areas 5. Education (Housing, education, tuition assistance…) Structure: Uniqueness: Bad education now (low test scores, high drop-out rates, few debate clubs, no access, segregation). Link: Plan increases education levels and access for affected group (young, old, college too). MPX: US competiveness/Heg/Econ, quality of life, disease, segregation(Racism), poverty

20. Advantage Areas • Segregation (Schools, Employment, Housing, Transit, etc…) • Structure: • Uniqueness: Social Service/some group is currently segregated, unable to participate in an activity or receive a benefit • Link: Plan is big step necessary to fix this • MPX: Racism is bad, Feminism is bad, dehumynization is probably bad too

21. Advantage Areas • Domestic Violence (child services, adoption services, women’s services) • Structure : • Uniqueness: Those in poverty are likely to be victims of domestic violence • Link: Plan solves a portion of this • MPX: Torture, Sexism, Dehumynization

22. Advantage Areas • Environmental Justice (Energy, housing, prisons…) • Structure: • Uniqueness: Unhealthy, dangerous facilities are place in impoverished neighborhoods • Link: Plan moves the facilities, or the neighborhoods • MPX: Racism, health

23. Advantage Areas 9. Emergency Services (Emergency Services, housing, transit…) Structure: Uniqueness: SQ  Poor/inefficient emergency services in impoverished neighborhoods Link: Plan allows/creates better, efficient services or operations MPX: Racism, terrorism, health, crime

24. Advantage Areas 10. Civil-Military Relations (Any Social Service given to veterans in poverty) Structure : Uniqueness: Vets not getting service now hurts CMR Link: Plan significantly boosts CMR by redressing problems MPX: Heg, civil war, democracy

25. Advantage Areas 11. Freedom/Dehumynization (Most any aff) Structure : Uniqueness: People in poverty, w/o education, in violent situations, in prison, etc… are deprived of freedom/dehumynized Link: Plan brings freedom from predicament MPX: Freedom/Rights Good, Dehumynization Bad – Worse than death

26. Now on to Part 3! (of 4) • Now that we have learned about social services who do we give them to? • Anyone in poverty, or any subgroup thereof • Just give it to more than two or three people and you are good to go. Remember you just have to substantially increase the social services received by your target, not the aggregate social services received by all in poverty

27. The Who? 4. This allows you to make your Aff very narrow and get better access to Racism/segregation advantages while avoiding big DA’s and even some CP’s! 5. It even allows you to claim special advantages off of which group of people you help – like the CMR advantage or a prisons advantage 6. Following is a list of some of the common groupings you may see.

28. Who’s on First? • Veterans • Prisoners • Homosexuals/Transgendered • Children • Juveniles (in prison/detention) • Elderly • Women • Pregnant women • Assorted minorities • Drug addicts

29. Is Who on Second Yet? 11. Native Americans 12. Urban poor 13. Rural poor 14. Suburban poor (not suggested, you may get laughed at, but they do exist…) 15. Illegal immigrants 16. Homeless 17. Those living in multi-family homes 18. And many, many more…

31. The Who in Concert! • It gets even better when you combine some of the different groups… • African American women • Women prisoners • Illegal Columbian immigrants • Homeless in DC • Veterans suffering from PTSD • Elderly rural residents • The combinations are endless, but don’t specialize yourself out of significance!

32. Stock Issues: Significant Caution • Significance • First one on the list. • Most debaters no longer worry about Significance – they assume that nuclear war is big enough (it is). But this year you must also ensure that the amount of help you give is actually significant enough to solve nuclear war, mass dehumanization, or the social movement your impact cards are really talking about!

33. Almost There!... ish After exhaustive internet research I bring you a case-list of additional affirmative ideas that have gained some acceptance in the debate community, that you will probably see, and which could turn out to be pretty ok. 1. Census Restructuring (We don’t actually count all the poor people right now, fix the census, count the poor people, more are eligible for social services of all types)

34. The Ideas of Others • Prisoner employment assistance (out of jail – into job) • Clean needles (needle exchange) for drug addicts

35. The Ideas of Others 4. Military abortion funding 5. Teen Pregnancy Assistance • Sex Trafficking • Redefine the poverty line (lower)

36. What’s the problem with the proverbial line in the sand? The ocean tends to move it.

37. The Unfortunate Ideas of Others • With that we enter a brief discussion of possible K affirmatives (There truly is nothing new under the sun). These are grouped by K rather than by social service. • Neo-liberalism/Cap Bad • Bio-power bad (Physician Assisted Suicide and others) • Racism (Only the Gov can solve segregation) • Feminism (Social Services are egalitarian) • Legalize Prostitution, Marijuana (Gender norms Bad, Borders Bad, Normativity)

38. The Conditional End • A final type of Aff to prepare or be prepared for: conditioning welfare opportunities on the fulfillment of a set condition • Well grounded in the literature. • Examples include: • Vouchers (We pay difference if you give 40% of your income to housing costs • Healthcare if you work in a certain industry • Education if you serve in the military

40. Q&A! • Rules: • You ask. I answer. Unless somebody else has a better answer, or I have a better question. • You must ask. • Stay awake. • This is your chance to find out about case specific arguments or particular programs. Ask!