Voice For Liberty

Tag: Barack Obama

  • Thompson makes case for liberalism, freedom, capitalism

    Speaking to an audience in Wichita last Thursday, author and scholar C. Bradley Thompson delivered a lecture that explained the foundation of the greatness of America, and cautioned that this greatness is, and has been, under attack.

    Thompson’s lecture was sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute and underwritten by the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation. Thompson is the BB&T Research Professor at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton and Harvard Universities and at the University of London.

    In his lecture, Thompson explained the “two Americas,” which he said are “two radically different moral and political visions for America.” These are two different perspectives on the meaning of the word “liberalism.”

    America, Thompson said, is and always has been a liberal nation. The question to ask, he said, is: Which liberalism? Thompson drew a distinction between what he called the old liberalism of America’s revolutionary founding fathers, and the new liberalism associated with “the ‘Republicratic’ party of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.”

    The philosophy of the old liberalism, Thompson said, is summed up in the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    The philosophy of the new liberalism, however, is this: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” These are the words of Karl Marx and the political philosophy of socialism.

    Thompson said that these two competing moral philosophies have dominated American culture for the last 100 years. He asked: which of these is the most dominate in American life and culture today? The answer, he said, is clear, holding up a copy of Newsweek magazine from last year whose cover claimed “We are all socialists now.”

    In examining the two forms of liberalism, Thompson started with the old liberalism. This insisted that men have the right to be free and to pursue their happiness without interference from others. Politically, government should be strictly limited through a separation of church and state, school and state, economy and state, and culture and state. Economically, individuals should be free to produce and exchange their goods and services free from government control, and government should not take wealth.

    Socially, Thompson said that the founder’s liberalism is best expressed by “rugged individualism.” This is distinctly American — there is no French version of this, he told the audience.

    This is a “principled commitment to freedom” in which individuals are morally sovereign.

    Liberalism embodied itself in America’s founders a distrust of political power. The question at the time of the founding was “How can the grasping power of government be tamed and harnessed in a way that would serve the legitimate functions of government?” The solution was to subordinate the government to the Constitution. Written constitutions, then, are the fundamental law.

    Initially, the night watchman state advocated by Thomas Jefferson was strictly limited with a “tightwad budget.” Government asked only that citizens respect the rights of others, live self-starting, self-reliant, virtuous lives, and that citizens deal with each other through persuasion and voluntary trade. In exchange, the state promised protection from domestic and foreign criminals and to govern by the rule of law.

    But the “land of the free,” Thompson said, would not, and could not, last.

    Turning to the new liberalism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, Thompson said these are its principles: Morally, he repeated the Marxian slogan: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This, he said, is the moral philosophy of altruism: Selfishness is the ultimate form of evil, and that selflessness is the highest moral good. “Man’s greatest moral duty is to sacrifice one’s self to needs of others,” he told the audience. President Obama has called for such sacrifices, he said.

    In practice, Thompson said that altruism means the hard-working must be sacrificed for the lazy. The best is sacrificed to the lowest common denominator. In practice, he said it punishes ability and virtue, rewards incompetence and vice, destroying incentive, responsibility, integrity, and honesty in the process.

    Egalitarianism is at the center of the new liberalism, he said. New liberalism says that individuals have positive rights and positive freedom. It means that everyone — regardless of ability and productivity — should be made equal. Freedom from fear and want become basic human rights.

    “The modern welfare state is morally corrupting and fundamentally evil on all levels. It teaches one man that he has the right to live off the work of another man.” The impact on the moral character of Americans is that presently 61 million Americans are dependent on the government for their daily housing, food, and health care. This has grown by 31 percent in the last nine years, Thompson said.

    Politically, new liberalism says that the common good trumps individual rights. Individual self-interest must be always be sacrificed to the general welfare. Since this “public interest” is undefinable and non-objective, the coercive power of the government must be too: undefinable and non-objective. “Unlimited ends requires unlimited means,” Thompson said.

    While liberal socialism speaks of grand ideals such as social responsibility, what it really wants is more basic: power. “There is a direct and causal relationship between the morality of sacrifice, and force, and the violation of rights.”

    Examples of the violations of rights and freedoms include Social Security, which violates the rights of younger Americans by forcing them to fund the retirements of senior citizens. Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare force taxpayers to fund the health care of anyone who claims to need it. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 violates the rights of bankers by forcing them to make risky mortgage loans to people that they wouldn’t have otherwise lent to. The ARRA (the federal stimulus bill of 2009) forces taxpayers to pay for all sorts of programs.

    Underlying all these programs is altruism, the moral philosophy which says we must serve others, whether we want to or not.

    Thompson went on to explain how altruism affects our lives day-to-day. The tax and regulatory system means that workers must work (on average) until April 9th to pay their taxes. This means, Thompson said, that for almost three and one-half months we are all enslaved to someone else.

    Thompson said that we are dying a slow death by regulatory strangulation. Endless commands by government bureaucrats regulate nearly all aspects of our lives. “We live in a world today — believe it or not — more heavily regulated than was Nazi Germany during the 1940s or Communist China is today.” Besides federal regulation, state and local governments add to the regulatory burden.

    The regulations have a much more insidious effect, Thompson said: “Each and every new entitlement or regulation passed by government seduces and tranquilizes the American people to become ever more reliant on politicians and bureaucrats for their daily sustenance and for their daily decision making and actions.”

    Thompson continued: “A moral culture of radical independence has become a moral culture of slouching dependence.” The last 80 years have seen the greatest expansion of political power, and the greatest loss of freedom, in our history. The untold story of our national history of the last century is “how the American people sold their freedom and sold their souls to the nanny state.”

    There are two questions confronting Americans today. First, have we reached a “tipping point” where government is on an unstoppable downward cycle?

    Second, and more important: Have we reached a point of no return on the road to serfdom?

    There is also another way to divide the two Americas, Thompson said: the rulers and the ruled. The ruling class is all the politicians of both major parties, along with bureaucrats at all levels, college professors, journalists of the mainstream media, think tank policy wonks, community organizers, and corrupt businessmen who support corporate welfare. This class presumes it is intellectually and morally superior to those it rules over.

    This ruling class, Thompson said, seeks to manage and regulate two classes of Americans: those who work and pay taxes, and those who don’t. By redistributing over one-fourth of what Americans produce, the ruling class rules over the country. The rule of law is replaced by the rule of men.

    And what does the ruling class want, Thompson asked? It wants us simply to obey. The country is drifting slowly and steadily to soft despotism.

    The two Americas are irreconcilable, Thompson told the audience. We can’t have both, he said — we must have one or the other.

    Concluding, Thompson said that “Americanism created a sphere of freedom unprecedented in world history.” The freedom philosophy of Americanism has liberated the creative and productive power of millions of ordinary Americans, listing the many impressive contributions of America to the world. The principles of individualism, limited government, and laissez-faire capitalism have revolutionized human life and improved it immensely.

    This American, “old liberalism” philosophy that has liberated ordinary men and women to pursue their own values and greatness is under attack, and we must fight to keep it alive.

  • Federal government spending: With all due respect Mr. President, we’re still waiting

    “We will go through our federal budget — page by page, line by line — eliminating those programs we don’t need.” — President-Elect Barack Obama, November 2008.

    How has that promise worked out? A newspaper advertisement placed by the Cato Institute reminds us of President Obama’s pledge — and its lack of fulfillment:

    It’s been nearly two years since you made that pledge, Mr. President. Since then, you’ve signed into law an $800 billion “stimulus” package and a massive new health care entitlement — adding trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities to our grandchildren’s tab.

    Our looming debt crisis threatens to destroy the American dream for future generations. Yet your administration continues piling up deficits of over a trillion dollars a year. By 2012 our national debt will be larger than the entire U.S. economy. Isn’t it past time you identified the programs you’d cut?

    This is at the same time the president criticizes small-government advocates for their lack of ideas. Countering that criticism, the Cato advertisement list many ways that federal spending could be cut. A companion website, Downsizing the Federal Government, contains more. From the site:

    The federal government is running massive budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Without a change of direction in Washington, average working families will be faced with huge tax increases and a lower standard of living.

    This website is designed to help policymakers and the public understand where federal funds are being spent and how to reform each government department. It describes the failings of federal agencies and identifies specific programs to cut. It also discusses the systematic reasons why government programs are often obsolete, mismanaged, or otherwise dysfunctional.

    Some people have lofty visions about how government spending can help society. But the essays on this website put aside such “bedtime stories” about how government programs are supposed to work, and instead focuses on how they actually work in the real world.

    Downsizing the Federal Government is a project of the Cato Institute. Scholars at Cato believe that cutting the federal budget would enlarge personal freedom, increase growth and prosperity, and leave a positive fiscal legacy to the next generation.

    Yes, Mr. President, we have lots of ideas. But we’re not prescriptive — so most of our ideas center around the government doing less, leaving more freedom and liberty in the hands of the people, not government.

  • Next Democrat Strategy: The October Surprise?

    A guest Op-Ed by Sue C.

    So far this election cycle Democrat strategies used against Republicans have included demonization, fear mongering, racism accusations, and voting record fabrications. None of which seem to be working well (here), proving that most people distrust not only politicians but also the liberal media. Regardless, we need to be prepared for the next level of attack: The Democrat October Surprise.

    I predict that this tactic will be widely used this fall. Expect it to be delivered within days of the election. Timing will be crucial. Democrats will want to ensure that the “surprise” inflicts the most possible damage to their opponent. Truly, Democrats must play this card, because their “accomplishments” since 2008 are so offensive to most Americans they don’t dare run on them.

    Not only are the Liberals running away from their records, they are even hiding from their party’s leaders. (See Fewer Democrats Turning To Obama For Campaign Help, Almost all Democratic Senate candidates would welcome Obama , and Barack Obama Tacitly Acknowledges He is Now a Pariah and the Democrats Are Screwed in 2010). Some even choosing to be “out of town” when fundraisers for them are held.

    The Washington Examiner recently stated that the Democrat party is “triaging” races. This includes pulling money away from the races they are behind in, and putting up “fire walls” on the salvageable candidates. Here in Kansas, we have seen the Democratic Governors Association pull away funding for Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Tom Holland, who lags in the polls behind Sen. Sam Brownback, the Republican candidate.

    Just what could these October surprises against Republican candidates include? It is any one’s guess. Staffers are most likely working overtime to uncover anything they can use to destroy their opponents. They will strike close to election day, when time constraints make it difficult to mount a defense.

    To lessen the impact of this mud-slinging, one pundit suggests we “hold a contest to see who comes up with the most creative suggestion for what the Dems might do.” An interesting concept, although it sounds a bit flippant for something so grave.

    History has shown the October Surprise to be a serious threat. Its potential for inflicting damage to a Republican candidate must not be ignored. Accomplices in the liberal media will assist in the destruction with biased news coverage.

    We must remember that being forewarned allows us to be forearmed. “Be prepared” may be a good motto to adopt. November is coming, but we have to get through October first!

  • U.S. needs permanent tax cuts, not Obama stopgap

    It’s good news that President Barack Obama now realizes that taxes are a drag on business investment and employment. But we need permanent tax cuts, not a temporary measure.

    The tax cuts proposed are in the form of allowing businesses to write off or “expense” capital investment faster than before. This effectively reduces the cost of making capital investments — the purchase of machinery, equipment, etc. intended to increase a firm’s productive capacity.

    The tax cuts Obama announced would take effect on September 8th, the day he announced the cuts. That’s only if the proposal makes it through Congress and becomes law. So there’s a dose of uncertainty there, although this legislation would seem likely to pass. But the tax cuts would last only through the end of 2011.

    These tax cuts are much preferred to the stimulus program that Obama relied on to jump-start the economy last year. Whether the stimulus spending was effective is disputed.

    In the case of tax cuts, each business gets to “spend” (make use of) the tax savings in the way it feels adds most value to it, and by extension, the economic output of the U.S. But stimulus spending had to make its way through the legislative appropriations process, where all sorts of competing — and non-economic — considerations came into play. Evidence of this: Jerry Brito and Veronique de Rugy looked at stimulus spending and found that Congressional districts in Democrat hands received nearly twice as much stimulus spending as Republican districts.

    But these proposed tax cuts are scheduled to expire, so we’ll be looking at a situation similar to the present, where the Bush income tax cuts are about to expire. The president favors letting them expire. But now that the president seems to have realized that tax cuts are good for business, good for jobs, and good for the economy, maybe he’ll consider changing his support of a large tax increase to take effect on January 1.

    There is the issue that these tax cuts are targeted, although the target is broad. But some firms may not be in a position to make capital expenditures over the next 15 months. These firms would not be able to take advantage of these tax cuts.

    Targeting these tax cuts also creates an additional class of capital assets that a firm has to keep track of, as assets purchased during the period of this legislation have to be depreciated in a different way than other assets.

    Accompanying the proposed tax cuts is a plan to spend $50 billion on infrastructure.

    While cutting taxes is always good, Obama’s plan does nothing to bring federal spending under control, or to reduce the uncertainty that accompanies the expiration — or not — of the Bush tax cuts and the oncoming implementation of Obama’s health care plan.

  • Capitalism means freedom

    In recent years, the ideas and principles of capitalism have taken a beating. The election of President Barack Obama in 2008 was a blow to the freedom that capitalism is built on, although President George W. Bush had done a fair job trampling on the principles of capitalism.

    Locally, it was a bad year for capitalism and economic freedom in the Kansas Legislature. The Wichita Eagle editorial board seems to have the disparagement of capitalism as its primary goal, as it promotes government action at the expense of economic freedom and individual liberty at every opportunity.

    What is capitalism? Milton Friedman, in introducing his book Capitalism and Freedom, wrote this as a way of defining capitalism: “… competitive capitalism — the organization of the bulk of economic activity through private enterprise operating in a free market — as a system of economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom.”

    Some writers allow government no role at all in the economy, unlike Friedman’s small-state capitalism.

    The economist George Reisman writes this in his monumental book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics:

    Capitalism is a social system based on private ownership of the means of production. It is characterized by the pursuit of material self-interest under freedom and it rests on a foundation of the cultural influence of reason. Based on its foundations and essential nature, capitalism is further characterized by saving and capital accumulation, exchange and money, financial self-interest and the profit motive, the freedoms of economic competition and economic inequality, the price system, economic progress, and a harmony of the material self-interests of all the individuals who participate in it.

    Reisman’s lecture Some Fundamental Insights Into the Benevolent Nature of Capitalism is a useful look at the principles and benefits of capitalism.

    First, capitalism and freedom are intertwined, as Friedman wrote too. Reisman writes “Individual freedom — an essential feature of capitalism — is the foundation of security. He expands on the meaning of freedom, writing “Freedom means the absence of the initiation of physical force.” This is the libertarian belief in the nonagression axiom, as asserted by Murray N. Rothbard: “The libertarian creed rests upon one central axiom: that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else.”

    Being free from aggression means being free from the common criminal, but also, as Reisman explains, free from government aggression: “Even more important, of course, is that when one is free, one is free from the initiation of physical force on the part of the government, which is potentially far more deadly than that of any private criminal gang.”

    It is the recognition of government as aggressor that (partially) separates libertarian belief from conservative. As the libertarian John Stossel explained: “Increasingly, it seems that the biggest difference between conservatives and liberals is that the conservatives know government is force. But that doesn’t stop them from using it.”

    This is just the first insight into capitalism in Reisman’s lecture.

  • Americans believe teachers should be paid based on merit

    A Gallup poll finds that Americans overwhelmingly believe that teacher salary should be paid “on the basis of the quality of his/her work.” 72 percent of public school parents believe this.

    A related question asked “How closely should a teacher’s salary he tied to his/her students’ academic achievement?” 75 percent of public school parents answered either “very” or “somewhat closely tied.”

    Then, 78 percent of parents answered “yes” to this question: “Do you have trust and confidence in the men and women who are teaching children in the public schools?”

    Taken together, the responses to these question indicated that Americans like the people who teach their children, but may have a problem with public school administration and unions. After all, it’s administrators and unions that are responsible for the way teachers are paid. The unions vigorously resist any attempt at starting merit pay programs.

    President Barack Obama has said that merit pay is important, but doesn’t seem to push it very hard. In Kansas, Republican candidate for governor Sam Brownback has proposed a master teacher program, which is a very weak form of merit pay.

    Democratic candidate Tom Holland doesn’t mention teacher merit pay on his website. It would be surprising if he supported any ideas that the education establishment in Kansas opposes.

    Libertarian Andrew Gray promotes the Kansas Education Liberty Act. This does not specifically mention teacher merit pay, but it proposes an expansion of school choice in Kansas. This means more charter and private schools, where teachers are usually paid based on merit.

    Merit pay is important. Why? Research is conclusive in showing that teacher effects are the most important factor in student achievement that is under the control of schools. The best teachers need to be rewarded, and the worst ushered out of the field or into improvement programs.

    The education establishment in Kansas, however, does not believe in this. Their prescription is more of the same: more spending, more buildings, and basing pay on measures that have been shown to have little or no significance to quality teaching: longevity and education credentials gained.

    As the Gallup poll shows, Americans like their teachers but believe they should be paid based on merit, just like almost all other workers. It’s the education establishment that stands in the way of meaningful reform. In Kansas the two most prominent faces of the education establishment and maintaining the failing status quo are the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA, the teachers union) and the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB).

  • At Americans for Prosperity, George Will is optimistic

    Friday night’s dinner at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation fourth annual Defending the American Dream summit featured Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Will as keynote speaker.

    Will’s message was that while progress in limiting the growth of government has been reversed, this can be overcome, and he believes that a restoration of liberty and economic freedom will happen.

    As the dinner was a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, Will told the audience one of his favorite lines from Reagan during the 1980 campaign: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job.”

    Continuing, he said that “Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter 2.0 and it is time to hit the delete button.”

    Will told the audience that the “retreat of the state” that started with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and the election of Ronald Reagan has been reversed. This should be reversed again, he said.

    On the federal stimulus, Will said that the downward revision of GDP from a bad number to an even worse number is evidence that the stimulus is not working.

    There are two things that the administration is saying that are “funny,” Will said. One is that our current crisis was brought on because there was too little government regulation and administration. The second is that the problem with the stimulus is that Republicans made it too small. “The government is dangerously frugal at the moment,” he said to laughter from the audience.

    But Will said that the government controls the money supply and interest rates, leading to control of home mortgages. He traced the edicts of government that increasing percentages of mortgages must be given to those with poor credit. These expansions of the federal government, along with the No Child Left Behind education law, happened under Republican administrations, evidence that not only Democrats are too blame.

    Government is dominating the energy sector too. He said that matters because “no less of an authority of energy” than Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that “America should use more natural gas rather than fossil fuels.”

    In health care, half of spending is already government money, and that will increase, as will the 138,000 pages of health care regulations.

    As to the alleged dangerous frugality of the government, Will said we are “marching into the most predictable financial crisis the world has ever seen.” This crisis is self-inflicted, he said.

    Illustrating the size of government, he said that at the time of the first world war, when federal government spending exploded, the richest man in American could have personally retired the federal debt. But today’s richest man could pay for only two month’s interest on the deficit.

    The administration’s planned spending program will result in a situation ten years from now when federal entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) plus the interest on the federal debt will consume 93 percent of federal revenue. The debt will be one hundred percent of GDP. This will crowd out private borrowing and investment. As a nation, he said we don’t save enough to fund both government and the investment needs of the private sector economy.

    Will noted the remarkable progress of American medicine during his lifetime. But both presidential candidates campaigned against the pharmaceutical industry in 2008, which Will said was “shocking.” “It is time to quit stigmatizing those who create wealth, those who extend life, those who reduce pain. Get the government out of the way, and let them get on.”

    The economy is fragile, Will said, and we need not burden it more with taxes. He referred to Congressman Paul Ryan, who said we have a nation with “too many takers and not enough makers.”

    On education, he said we need an education system that “equips people to compete in a free society.” He criticized the short school year in the U.S., as compared to other countries. He told the audience that a major problem with schools is the teachers unions. The increased spending on schools has not worked. 90 percent of the difference between schools can be explained by characteristics of the students’ families, he said. “Don’t tell me the pupil-teacher ratio, tell me the parent-pupil ratio.”

    Even with as many problems as there are, he said that an “aroused citizenry” like that in the room tonight can fix the problems. He’s not pessimistic, he said, because Obama has stimulated a “new clarity” from the American people.

    There is a tension today between freedom and equality, two polar values. Liberals today stress equality of outcomes, and believe that the multiplication of entitlement programs to produce this equality serves the public good. But conservatives stress freedom, and that multiplication of entitlement programs is “subversive of the attitudes and aptitudes essential for a free society of self-reliant, far-sighted, thrifty and industrious people.”

    The Obama presidency has passed its apogee, Will told the audience. Quoting Winston Churchill, he said that “The American people invariably do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the alternatives.” Will said he believes that Americans believe that “a benevolent government is not always a benefactor, capitalism doesn’t just make us better off, it makes us better.”

    Will told the audience that “Americans for Prosperity exists on the principle that when you change the nation’s economy, you change the national character in the process.” Urging the citizen activists to get involved, he echoed a remark made by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who had spoken earlier: “You are the point of the lance. Go to work.”

    Before his speech, Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David H. Koch awarded Will the George Washington award. This is AFP’s highest award, given to Will for his work in defending and advancing economic freedom.

    Koch also spoke about the goals of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which he said are to advance economic freedom and prosperity by limiting government growth, spending, and taxation. It is a grassroots movement that holds political leaders of every party accountable. AFP advocates for the free market economy, which he said improves lives and created the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.

  • Dick Morris at Americans for Prosperity summit

    Addressing the general session of Americans for Prosperity Foundation‘s fourth annual Defending the American Dream summit, author and Fox New contributor Dick Morris told an audience of 2,300 that “The recession is over. It is the cure to the recession that we’re experiencing.”

    Morris said that when he worked with President Bill Clinton on cutting and balancing the budget, the spending cuts weren’t to balance budget. The budget was balanced by cutting taxes, which caused increased revenue to flow to the federal treasury. He said Clinton cut the capital gains tax, but Obama wants to increase it. He told the audience that when you raise taxes, you depress the economy.

    Obama and the big spenders use the economic crisis as an excuse to increase government spending. Other “problems” are used as additional excuses to increase government control.

    Morris said that he believes that Republicans will take control of both houses of Congress this year.

    After, there will be two fundamental challenges that remain. First, we have to make sure the people we elect based on pledges to reduce spending keep their word.

    Then, the states will come begging to Washington for a bailout. We need to say no, Morris told the audience. States should have a way to declare bankruptcy and get out from under public sector union contracts.

    At this time next year, Morris said we’ll be here again keeping those we elected accountable to their promises.

  • Americans for Prosperity summit starts today

    Today in Washington, Americans for Prosperity Foundation starts its fourth annual Defending the American Dream summit. The event is expected to be attended by 2,300 citizen grassroots activists from around the country.

    AFP has recently been criticized by President Barack Obama, which many interpret as evidence of AFP’s growing influence and effectiveness.

    AFP Foundation president Tim Phillips said “never before have grassroots Americans been so interested in the challenges facing our nation. We have a sharp lineup of speakers on the most pressing issues — energy, spending,net neutrality, to name a few — and we’re excited to give people information they can share with friends and neighbors as they examine these important policies being discussed in Congress right now.”

    Speakers at this year’s event include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Will, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, author and Fox New contributor Dick Morris, Herman Cain, and AFP President Tim Phillips. Breakout sessions throughout the day will provide a variety of learning opportunities for citizens.