My newest article has been published on AT

My newest article – which nicely sums up Robert Gates’s disastrous tenure as SECDEF – was published earlier today on AT.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/robert_gates_disastrous_tenure_at_dod.html

Bob Gates is scheduled to retire from the DOD tomorrow – and not a moment too soon.

Withdrawal of endorsement of Herman Cain

Folks, I have decided to withdraw my endorsement of Herman Cain. There are several reasons why.

Herman Cain has caused a problem for himself by turning his back on us FairTax supporters and adopting an alternative plan. How? By instead proposing to cut the capital gains tax to 0%, thus ensuring that the US Treasury would have no revenue from the CGT and making it impossible to make up for the revenue that would be lost if the CGT is cut to 0%. Thus, he is not able to answer correctly questions about how he would make up for that revenue.

He’s deceiving the American people about the FairTax. He claims he supports it and just wants to implement it later, after he implements his tax cut proposals. This is ridiculous. You don’t cut taxes which the FairTax would ABOLISH ALTOGETHER if you are serious about impklementing the FairTax. I support tax cuts, but the FairTax is a manifestly better solution (and would amount to a net tax cut for all Americans). Moreover, the FairTax already has 72 sponsors and cosponsors in the Congress, and only needs a president who will use the bully pulpit to force the GOP leadership to let the FairTax come to the floor for a vote. 

When asked how he would stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and warned that Iran might get nuclear weapons in a year (yes, I know, hypothetical question – even if he wins, he won’t be sworn in as President until 20th January 2013), he said he would bring the price of oil down to cut off Iran’s chief source of revenue. But, as Bill O’Reilly has pointed out, Iran would be able to continue its nuclear program anyway. This is because 1) Russia continues to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran; 2) according to the US intel community, Iran is working on a nuclear weapon trigger and already possesses enough 20%-enriched uranium to produce enough HEU for 4 nuclear warheads if this uranium is enriched further.

Cain did not propose anything other than lowering the price of oil.

On Afghanistan, Cain continues to insist that he can’t propose any policy until he’s sworn in and gets intel briefings and talks to American generals. This is garbage. The American people will not give him a blank check on foreign policy.

He has also endorsed defense cuts, saying that he won’t cut the defense budget arbitrarily, or just to cut the defense warchest, but he will eliminate all wasteful spending projects and redirect the savings towards deficit reduction, not modernization accounts. (Hey, I want to eliminate wasteful DOD spending too, but I want any savings made at the DOD to be reinvested in the DOD.)

In short, Cain is not a serious candidate. He cannot offer Americans anything other than talking points. And by dumping the FairTax, he has caused a problem for himself.

PS: Folks, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/thehermancain#p/u/0/D7ilqGVOh4Y