Cincinnatus BLOG *** Political Commentary - Social Commentary

  In the United States we spend more per capita on health care than any other country in the world. We spent $7,421 per capita as compared to about $3,500 countries with universal national health care systems such as France and Germany. In fact, according to the latest data, we spent $2.2 trillion in 2007 on health care, or 16.2% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Even more worrisome is that expenditures continue to rise at an alarming rate of 6% annually. There is however, another side of the American health care story, one that is rarely discussed but one that has added dramatically to health care costs. In the past 25 years we have turned deadly diseases such as AIDS and many cancers into chronic illnesses. Death is cheap… Continue reading | 10 Comments

  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 | 14 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 | 14 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 | 6 Comments

  As a matter of morals, ethics and political philosophy, I support gay marriage. But as an ardent proponent of separation of Church and State, I would prefer civil unions, in which homosexual couples have identical rights and obligations as married heterosexual couples. I'm certain of only one thing; this distinction will be will be too subtle for both the fervent supporters and opponents of gay marriage. When the smoke clears from the obfuscating rhetoric, gay union speaks solely to constitutionally guaranteed rights of gay couples to enjoy the benefits accorded to married heterosexual couples. Gay marriage, on the other hand, opens a discussion of how deeply we should allow religious beliefs to color our civil discourse. For the opponents of gay marriage, it is simple. Their religious beliefs trump constitutional and… Continue reading | 16 Comments

  "Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty" - Albert Einstein. I grew up in the Bronx where the public school system, with a few exceptions, was at best second-class. We who were fortunate enough to be born Irish, Italian, German, Polish and Hispanic Catholics were sent by our parents to "parochial school." The nickels, dimes and quarters thrown into the Sunday collection were used to build a parish school next to virtually every church -- just as the Emperor Charlemagne, the putative founder of public education, had once commanded. As a group, we eschewed public funding in order to ensure the proper education of our children. The Irish priests and nuns of my youth dedicated themselves to ensuring that… Continue reading | 5 Comments

  Women have the natural, and unalienable right to control their own fecundity. The notion that a woman can be forced to have a child against her will defies the basic precept of an unalienable right. "Unalienable rights" means those rights which belong to individuals as part of nature, and which every person is entitled to enjoy. The rights of personal security, of personal liberty, and private property do not depend upon the U.S. Constitution or any law for their existence. The philosopher John Locke, who provided the intellectual inspiration for Thomas Jefferson's "unalienable rights" assertion in the Declaration of Independence, expressed it this way: "No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions." Abortion Admittedly there is a tension created between the "rights" of the mother… Continue reading | 9 Comments

  In a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece advocating specialized health courts, author Philip K. Howard asserted, "Waste in the health care system costs America upwards of $1 trillion per year. Much of this waste is generated or justified by the fear of legal consequences that infects almost every health care encounter..... The legal system terrorizes doctors. Fear of possible claims leads medical professionals to squander billions in unnecessary tests and procedures. "Defensive medicine" is so prevalent that it has become part of standard protocol." In the United States we spend more per capita on health care than any other country in the world. We spent $7,421 per capita as compared to about $3,500 countries with universal national health care systems such as France and Germany. We don't receive… Continue reading | 1 Comment