Blog

Analysis, commentary, and observations on US public policy.

Big Problems Require Big Consensus

“Presidents come and go; Exxon doesn’t come and go.”

That was Lee Raymond, the longtime CEO of ExxonMobil. Many years ago, he told me that the company didn’t concern itself much with the Washington cycle, which ran two to four years. The wells they were drilling that day would still be pumping 50 years from now. They thought in half-centuries, not election cycles.


Read More
Sustainable Digital Sustainable Digital

Republicans and the Deficit: The Credibility Gap

As a fiscal conservative, I have spent most of my adult life voting Republican, believing—as Republicans historically claimed—that government should be smaller, leaner, and live within its means.

That brand is now bankrupt.

Read More
Sustainable Digital Sustainable Digital

The Big, Beautiful Republican Hypocrisy

I believe that, like a responsible adult, government should spend no more than it earns and should not borrow from our children to pay for current consumption. By definition, this makes me a fiscal conservative.

Read More
Sustainable Digital Sustainable Digital

November 5th: A Choice We Should Not Have to Make

November 5th will be the third time that I don't have a choice based purely on policy. This year, I will again have to make a choice based on my ethics, because ethics must always take priority over policy. That is why I say this is a choice that we should not have to make. Ethics should be assumed.

Read More