Down the Center, but Not Politics As Usual

How would no corporate taxes influence job growth?

What would happen if we taxed oil imports heavily?

"I get frustrated with what I see going on in Washington and at the state level," said Peter D'Amico, of SCB International, a Newtown firm that supplies raw materials for companies that make cement. "The Democrats want to increase spending and tax the wealthy. The Republicans want to cut taxes and cut spending. They rarely agree on anything."

D'Amico is supporting a program that encouraged the University's honors students to study major political issues. The students, who come from the full political spectrum, try to take Repubican ideas and Democratic party ideas and look for both common ground and a solution. The group's website is www.viewsfromthecenter.org, although it appears to be under construction.

Professor Chris Kukk, Ph.D., is running the student program, and he said he hopes this effort continues long after this political election year.

"I think you'll see some fresh ideas," Kukk said.

D'Amico said his idea was to give the students an idea and to see where their research would lead them.

One of the group's goals is to give politicians in an election year some new ideas to consider, and maybe raise the level of the debate.

Marissa O'Loughlin, a junior from Danbury, argued that giving more power to local governments, both state and municipal, would limit waste and corruption. She also argued that giving tax money to the federal government leaves taxpayers wondering how their money is used, but they can see how their city or state uses its money.

O'Loughlin said students would pick issues all summer and fall, heading into the November presidential election, and find arguments and draw conclusions based on their research. Not only will the students post their policy options, they will document the sources of the information used to reach their conclusions.

Andrew Nelson, who studied the nation's unemployment problem, recommended the nation consider eliminating corporate taxes. He argued that eliminating corporate taxes would attract jobs back to the U.S. He argued that the unemployed should be required to hold community service jobs and take job training classes.

"If you eliminated corporate taxes, that would be a game-changer," Nelson said. "It would bring jobs back to the United States."

In a second political policy brief, Taylor Wolff argued that the nation could solve its rising health care costs and lower the number of people living without insurance by providing free health care clinics nationwide. This policy statement runs approximately four single-spaced typed pages, and the funding mechanism for this plan would be a tax on imported energy. The tax revenue would fund health care, plus it would encourage both domestic oil production and conservation.

The website will have four policy briefs on it this week, and another three next week.