PORT ANGELES — Two leaders from opposite ends of the political spectrum squared off in a presentation that focused on conservative vs. progressive philosophies as they relate to the issues of the day at a packed Rotary Club of Port Angeles luncheon last week.
Kaj Ahlburg, 52, the treasurer of the Clallam County Republican Party and chairman of its platform committee, and Matthew Randazzo, 28, chairman of the Clallam County Democratic Party and an author, fielded questions and dueled in competing speeches.
While their opinions differed, both were affected by national tragedies, Graham Hutchins of the Rotary Club said in introducing them.
In New York for 9/11
Ahlburg, a former lawyer and retired investment banker, was working in an office in midtown Manhattan, N.Y., on Sept. 11, 2001, when he saw a jet hit the World Trade Center, spurring an abiding interest in researching terrorism and Islam, Ahlburg said.
Ahlburg and his family moved from New York City, bought Port Angeles property in 2002 and moved to the North Olympic Peninsula in 2003, partly as a consequence of those attacks, he said in a later interview.
Hurricane Katrina
Randazzo lost most of his family possessions Aug. 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina leveled New Orleans, an area he is from and where his mother lived, he said.
Less than a month later, the National Flood Insurance Program reimbursed her claim in full, while after litigation, she eventually received a third of what she was entitled to from a private insurance company, he said.
“It showed me that reality is on the side of those who view government’s role as a protector,” Randazzo said.
Most of the program consisted of statements read by Randazzo and Ahlburg, who is among those suing the federal government over a new federal health care law in a case the Supreme Court will hear beginning Monday.
The issues over what critics call “Obamacare” include a mandate that individuals and their dependents be covered by health insurance, which is being challenged under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
Health care
“Conservatives do not believe in finding the penumbras of the Constitution power of the federal government clearly not intended by the Founding Fathers,” Ahlburg said.
He cited as an example “the creeping expansion of the Commerce Clause that is converting the federal government from one of limited, enumerated powers to one that can regulate everything that moves and breathes.”
He added that the government’s “proper function” does not include establishing the Departments of Energy and Education, nor does it include the Washington state’s Growth Management Act.
The land-use law’s repeal is supported by conservatives because it enforces “overreaching regulations,” he said, spurning what he repeatedly called “the nanny state.”
“Conservatives believe that, while it is the right of the individual to pursue happiness, it is not the obligation of the state to create or guarantee it,” Ahlburg said.
But Randazzo said conservatives rely too much on the free market, which is less likely to represent the interests of an elected government, is dominated by corporate self-interest and “can directly contradict the best interests of our local, regional and national community.”
Corporate self-interest
Randazzo added that the small-government philosophy of conservatives produces legislation such as the 2012 congressional Republicans’ budget — unveiled last week — which drastically cuts Medicare, Medicaid, federal funding for food inspections and Pell Grants while “showering” the wealthy with an average $150,000 tax break.
Education, infrastructure spending, police and military funding, and tax loopholes “funded equally by all taxpayers” protect the wealthy, he said.
“No American’s wealth is wholly self-created and self-perpetuated,” Randazzo said.
Ahlburg tackled that issue under the heading “wealth transfer” in his presentation.
“Conservatives oppose progressive taxation and a welfare system that takes money out of the pockets of the most productive citizens to hand it over to the least productive ones,” he said.
“This inevitably leads to the most productive citizens making less of an effort if the rewards of their efforts accrue to someone else, while the least productive ones are not given enough of an incentive to work hard to obtain what they can get for free.”
Asked by one questioner what provisions of the new health care law he would preserve, Ahlburg said sections of the legislation may be able to stand on their own without the mandate.
If Congress enacted them, conservatives would abide by the decision.
“Free market equilibrium” can address the lack of health insurance among Americans, he said.
Responded Randazzo: “It’s hard to believe free market equilibrium will compel large, multinational corporations to behave morally.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
