Cincinnatus Blog /// Political Commentary, Social Commentary and Environmental Policy

  Embodied in our founding documents is the promise of unparalleled "Opportunity For All". This is what makes America unique. In no other country can children of poor immigrants rise to the pinnacle of wealth and power. Talent, education and hard work are building blocks of the American success story, not birthright or ethnicity. Have we done enough to preserve our special heritage - Have we been good custodians of our patrimony? As the son of bootblack I know firsthand the opportunities that can arise when you mix education and hard work. The American system has certainly worked well for this boy from the Bronx as well as for a half African-American lawyer who recently became President of the United States and countless tens of millions of others who have risen from… Continue reading | 1 Comment

  From Disneyland on the Potomac another ill conceived environmental bill, the  "American Clean Energy and Security Act" which will virtually guarantee that global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels increase at faster rate. In the process we will also eliminate over 3 million American jobs. President Obama has chosen to placate his left wing base by promoting the "Waxman-Markey global warming bill" over his stated goal of creating new jobs. A study by Charles River Associates concluded that if Obama signs off on this Congressional proposal to reduce CO2 emissions, it would have a serious impact on the availability and cost of energy. "By 2025, just 16 years from now, the cost of natural gas would rise 56%, electricity 44% and motor fuel 19%. Annual household purchasing power would annually decline by… Continue reading | 9 Comments

  The U.S. must join the rest of the Western world and ensure that every American has access to modern healthcare. We will however accomplish nothing worthwhile if we provide universal healthcare insurance and don't have a real plan to deliver healthcare to the 46 million Americans who are now uninsured. Liberals, conservatives and moderates in Congress have developed innumerable insurance schemes, electronic medical record systems, a cliché or two about living healthy lives, tax mechanisms to pay the bill but have no plan to actually deliver healthcare the day after they congratulate themselves on reforming the "healthcare system". Maybe they can borrow George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" sign. Those of us who have worked with dozens of differing universal healthcare systems throughout the world come to the problem with a very different… Continue reading | 4 Comments

  The first lesson every President learns is that in trying to please all his constituents he pleases no one, including himself. President Obama sold the $800 billion Stimulus Plan to the American people as a strategy to create untold infrastructure jobs. If fact, President Obama said the stimulus plan would save or create 3.5 million jobs in the next two years and that he hoped to limit the unemployment rate to a peak of 8% this summer. In typical political bait and switch fashion his democratic Congress allocated 8% of the stimulus money to infrastructure projects. Instead of infrasturture jobs Congress gave us cornucopia of social programs that have been on their wish list for decades, leaving the President with egg on his face. The unemployment rate has already reached… Continue reading | 21 Comments

  From the beginning of our republic, immigration has played a critical role in the vibrant United States economy.  Diversity and innovation are the very hallmark of our nation. That is not to say that immigration has not sparked controversy in every generation. Today, no one would critique mainstream German and Irish immigrants, but only a century ago they were looked upon as "Papist" invaders. Similarly today's immigrants will be tomorrows all-Americans. There are 12 million or so undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. In addition it is estimated that 400,000 people enter the country illegally each year -- a direct consequence of the fact that our current policy is to make available only 5,000 visas annually for low-skilled workers. We need a plan to legalize this group while at the… Continue reading | 11 Comments

  The morphing of environmentalism to Malthusian disaster theory leaves me with an uneasy feeling. Environmentalists seem more concerned with halting human economic progress than protecting the environment. Elite environmentalists, like their forefather, Malthus, appear to use nature merely as an excuse to discipline less enlightened members of society.  Malthus believed we would be unable to feed ourselves as our numbers expanded. He postulated that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as population growth outstripped food production. Malthusian population theory was eventually dismissed for its pessimism and failure to take into account technological advances in agriculture and food production. Malthusian population disaster theory however covers more than just the limits of food production, it encompasses all of earth's natural resources - "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the… Continue reading | 1 Comment

  Some thoughts for Obama Motors to consider! Only 20% of the energy contained in gasoline is converted to mechanical energy by a traditional internal combustion engine. Refinements in the internal combustion engine, improved aerodynamics, more efficient drivetrains and low resistance tires could make a greater contribution to increased milage and reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) production than advanced technology such as plug-in cars. Among the adjustments that could help improve fuel economy are turbocharging with smaller, more efficient engines that produce the same level of power; advanced heat management and cooling systems, which reuse the heat produced by the engine for energy; weight reduction, including extensive use of high-strength steel; better aerodynamics; more efficient air conditioners, transmissions and lighting devices and increased electrification leading to full hybridization with electric motor and… Continue reading | 3 Comments

  Christians must to find a way to justify war because their founder was a pacifist. Muslins have to defend peace because their founder was a warrior. Although I am not a pessimist, who sees the conflict of cultures as inevitable, we ignore this distinction at our own peril. The Obama doctrine of political correctness would have us believe that all religions are inherently peaceful. By turning a blind eye to the fundamental philosophical differences between East and West we only delude ourselves into believing that humanity will not give into to its baser instincts. History has shown this point of view to be naive and dangerous. American foreign policy must never be built on the shifting sands of wishful thinking but rather on the solid bedrock of history and philosophy. Since the… Continue reading | 79 Comments

  To hear Scheherazade tell the story, it sounds almost plausible. "If we can end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and create a two state solution we will unite the Arab world to confront our existential enemy nuclear Iran." The biggest myth of all is that any of the Arab States or Iran gives a damn about the fate of the Palestinians or a Palestinian State. Not a single Arab State or Iran has ever seriously used its petrodollars to improve the lot of the long-suffering Palestinian people. They have however, spent billions to inflame the conflict for their own political purposes. Hamas and Hezbollah do not receive money and military support because they are fighting a war of liberation, but rather as a diversion for the populace of Iran and the Arab States so that… Continue reading | 8 Comments

  The Obama 10 year budget includes trillions in new spending programs at a time when tax revenues are declining at a precipitous rate. The projected deficit in the Obama Budget is $7.0 trillion for the decade 2010 to 2019. That's the good news! The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded that, if the Obama budget were approved, the federal government would actually run even larger deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion a year over the next decade. The cumulative deficit from 2010-19 would be $9.3 trillion, according to the report - $2.3 trillion more than the Obama administration's forecast. The main reason for the difference in budget estimates is a difference in economic growth, with congressional views of long-term growth less optimistic than those of the White House. … Continue reading | 3 Comments