Students of every political stripe recently came together at Wake Forest University in North Carolina to debate politics ahead of the 2012 election.

Austin Cook of Wake Forest’s student paper has the story.

Students debate political issues

With just a week to go until Election Day, Wake Debate and the Old Gold & Black hosted the Wake Forest 2012 Presidential Debate at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 in the Brendle Recital Hall.

Emily Madalena, Dan Hanley and Mobin Koohestani debated for Student Libertarians, while the College Republicans were represented by James Rex and Tyler Slezak. Students from the College Democrats included Gerard Neely, Emily Bachman and Joel Diamond.

The debate was moderated by Provost Rogan Kersh and covered a wide array of issues including student loans, the national economy, national security, women’s reproductive rights and civil liberties among others.

The initial series of questions, all posed by Kersh, began with the topic of student loans. Now that total student loan debt is equivalent to more than $1 trillion in the United States, this issue is one that affects the vast majority of the university study body.

The Republican panel had the first response to this subject, arguing that the federal government “should not step in” to guarantee student loans.

The Student Libertarians offered a similar perspective, proposing a “free market solution” where there is greater competition between loan distributers to keep interest rates low. By contrast, the College Democrats affirmed that President Obama fought hard to keep interest rates from doubling to 6.8 percent, saving college students thousands of dollars. The Democrats also cited the president’s efforts to nearly double the number of Pell Grants provided to college students from the federal government.

In discussing how to tackle the rising national debt, the Student Libertarians criticized both of the major party candidates, pointing out that during his first term President Obama has raised the national debt by 45 percent.

They went on to note that Governor Romney plans to increase military spending by $2 trillion, money that the Department of Defense isn’t even requesting. They advocated for former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson’s deficit reduction plan instead, which is to audit the Federal Reserve, balance the budget and reform entitlements.

In response, the College Democrats argued for a “fair and balance approach” consisting of tax increases on the wealthy while also cutting government spending by $3.7 trillion. The College Republicans challenged the president’s position, saying that in reality, his plan “hasn’t done more than cut the debt by $1.4 trillion over 10 years,” a small fraction of the total.