Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge: 

A. Congress will reach a compromise on the debt ceiling – Obama’s resolve key.

The Hill 1/2/13 ~Mark Wasson, McConnell suggests early February deadline for passage of debt-ceiling bill,http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/275257-mcconnell-demands-quick-debt-ceiling-bill~~====**

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pivoted Wednesday from the "
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in our efforts to achieve meaningful spending and government reform," he said. 

Obama will throw weight behind debt ceiling negotiations.

The Hill 1/2/13 ~ Boehner tells GOP he’s through negotiating one-on-one with Obama, Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/275295-boehner-tells-gop-hes-done-with-one-on-one-obama-talks~~%23ixzz2GxuQsqZU-https://webmail.pepperdine.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=a0b128e615ab47f9ac960d3143ff3f5b%26URL=http%3a%2f%2fthehill.com%2fhomenews%2fhouse%2f275295-boehner-tells-gop-hes-done-with-one-on-one-obama-talks%23ixzz2GxuQsqZU~~====

When Obama told Boehner in November that he wanted an increase in the debt ceiling
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, the tax issue is off the table," the Boehner aide said.

b. Nuclear costs so much political capital that Obama has dropped it from his rhetoric.

Levine 12
(Levine, Gregg. ~September 7, 2012~ Obama Drops Nuclear Energy from Convention Speech. Gregg began his professional career doing public interest lobbying and organizing on Capitol Hill, specializing in extradition law, intelligence abuse, and first amendment issues. Gregg spent twelve years as a strategic consultant, doing branding, positioning, and communications for numerous media concerns, consumer products and services companies, political campaigns, not-for-profits, and civic and quasi-governmental organizations. Found at: http://my.firedoglake.com/gregglevine/2012/09/07/obama-drops-nuclear-energy-from-convention-speech/)
That Duke’s CEO thought to highlight efficiency is interesting. That President Obama, with
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his biggest nights, that nuclear power would be better left for dead.

c. Failure to raise the debt ceiling causes global economic catastrophe.

Slate.com 1/2/13 ~Obama Tells Congress He Will Not Tolerate Another Debt-Ceiling Debacle,http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/01/02/fiscal_cliff_obama_warns_congress_he_will_not_have_debt_ceiling_debate.html~~====**

In a brief address Tuesday night, President Obama saluted the passage of a fiscal
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released a statement saying, "Now the focus turns to cutting spending." 

d. Economic decline, in the context of this current economic crisis, leads to nuclear war.

O’Donnell ’9 ~2-26, Sean, "Will this recession lead to World War III?" Baltimore Republican Examiner, www.examiner.com/republican-in-baltimore/will-this-recession-lead-to-world-war-iii, accessed 9/20/11~

Could the current economic crisis affecting this country and the world lead to another world
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possibility of World War III is averted. However sometimes history repeats itself. 

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge: 

A. INTERPERTATION- The United States Federal Government is either the legislative, executive or judicial branch. The affirmative must specify this in the plan

A Dictionary of Politics 1973 p 509
The structure of the federal government, and of most inferior governments, is based on the doctrine of Separation of Powers; membership in any of the three co-ordinate branches of government – legislative, executive, judicial – is incompatible with membership in the other. 

B. Violation: The Aff doesn’t specify which branch of government is used in their plan.

C. Standards

1. Ground:  Not specifying which branch destroys CP ground, agent DA’s and perception arguments because they can switch their advocacy in the 2AC, making the plan conditional.

 2.  2AC Clarification is illegitimate:  We already lost ground, don’t let them cover that up. It also makes them a moving target, since we don’t know who enacts the plan. 1NC strategy is based only on the plan text, so it should be evaluated in a vacuum.

 3. Education: We increase topic specific education like actor indicts and implementation

         4. Encourages bad plan text writing – Non-specification creates vague plan texts that don’t provide any neg link ground.  

D. ASPEC is a voter for the reasons above in the name of Fairness and predictability.

Tournament:  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Text: Citing Executive Authority, the President of the United States of America should sign an executive order to substantially increase loan guarantees for small modular thermal reactors.

Observation 1: Not Topical—not legislation

Observation 2: Solves the case and doesn’t link to politics
Empirically, executive orders are used to increased domestic energy production.
Warrick %26 Eilperin ’04 ~Joby and Juliet, Staff Writers, Washington Post, "Old and Gas Hold the Reins in the Wild West; Land-Use Decisions Largely Favor Energy Industry", The Washington Post, 9/25~

While the annual number of new leases by oil and gas companies is down from
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agency officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions. 

XO shields the president from politics – Congress will ensure this, particularly in the arena of energy production.  
Sovacool %26 Sovacool ’09 ~Ben and Kelly, Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool is a Research Fellow in the Energy Governance Program at the Centre on Asia and Globalization, Sovacool is a Senior Research Associate at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.  Article: Preventing National Electricity-Water Crisis Areas in the United States, Columbia Journal of Environmental Law~

The courts and Congress, in other words, do not want to deal with
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the constraints faced by environmental and energy related legislation and Supreme Court rulings.