Lauren Trevisan/The Hoya Ted Halstead, the president and founder of the New America Foundaition, spoke about the current state of American party politics in Gaston Hall.

One week before President Bush is set to deliver his annual State of the Union address, a panel of writers and policy experts convened in Gaston Hall on Wednesday to discuss “the Real State of the Union.”

The forum, presented by The Atlantic Monthly magazine and the New America Foundation, featured a panel of policy analysts who discussed their pieces in the Atlantic Monthly’s recent issue of the same name.

Atlantic Monthly correspondent Jim Fallows said that the presidential State of the Union address had fallen into a state of disrepair.

“There has been a marked failure in fresh thinking,” Fallows said.

He said that he felt the president’s annual speech falls short of addressing the pressing needs of the nation, and the forum was to take advantage of this “missed opportunity.”

Ted Halstead, the president and founder of the New America Foundation, a non-partisan, political think-tank, discussed the current state of America’s political parties.

“Neither party is offering the American people what they want,” Halstead said.

Although American politics is dominated by two parties, Halstead said that most Americans identify themselves as independent of both. He said that he felt this was because neither party was able to present a clear and honest vision to lead the country.

Halstead described the Republican Party as the “party of the church.” The Republicans, he said, pursue their own predetermined objectives with a “religious fervor” that ignores reality.

“Ideology tends to trump honesty,” he said.

Conversely, Halstead described the Democratic Party as the “party of the chieftains.” He described today’s Democratic Party as “consumed by internal warfare” and tied down to past alliances with special interest groups.

“They do not trust the American people to make their own decisions,” he said.

Paul Starobin, a correspondent for the National Journal agazine, continued on the topic of political expression in the discussion of his article entitled “The Angry American.”

“The nation’s getting angrier, and I say, praise be,” Starobin said.

Public anger at the political process, he said, can be channeled to create positive change. According to Starobin, anger has been building recently along both sides of the political divide. He said he felt that the debate over gay marriage will continue to incite anger between clashing liberal and conservative values.

Maya MacGuineas, director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation, discussed tax reform.

“Tax cuts are often labeled tax reform,” MacGuineas said, adding that she felt that neither political party has adequately addressed tax reform. She said that a progressive consumption tax, something not proposed under the Bush tax cut, would be both fair and efficient.

Shannon Brownlee, a fellow at the New America Foundation, discussed her article about health care entitled “Information, Please.”

According to Brownlee, Americans are forced to pay high prices for healthcare, yet they do not have adequate information on the effectiveness of the numerous procedures they undergo.

“We pay doctors and hospitals for how much they do, not for how well they care for us,” she said. “We’re hurting people and increasing mortality by providing too much care.”

Michael Lind, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, discussed America’s middle class. Lind said that he felt the recent technological boom has caused a historical transition in the types of jobs middle class Americans are working in.

“In a high-tech society, most of the fastest-growing jobs are low-tech,” he said. Jobs such as janitorial work and nursing may rise in prominence and gain respect in the years to come, according to Lind.

University President John J. DeGioia welcomed the panelists. He said that he felt Georgetown was an ideal location for “The Real State of the Union.” Although media such as the Atlantic onthly serve to bring knowledge to the people, he said that he felt they will never replace a university as a model venue for discussing new ideas.

“Young people [at a university] wrestle with questions of ultimacy in the most influential time in their lives,” he said.

Amanda Gant (SFS ’07) said the discussion was inspiring. “It’s cool to see how the ideas fit together in the real world,” she said.

“I really liked how each of the people had pretty bold ideas,” Jay Buckey (COL ’06) said.

The event was also sponsored by the Office of the President and the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.