Author, Doctor, Speaker, Joseph Bentivegna

Doctor Bentivegna is an ophthalmologist living in Connecticut. He has written numerous op-ed pieces for The Hartford Courant and The New York Times regarding health care, tort reform, and the political situation in Haiti.

Zoning Reform – Liberal Suburbia Got What It Voted For

        Fairfield County suburbia is having a genteel revolt. Connecticut Democrats have proposed several bills that will require the suburbs to provide more affordable housing by allowing the state to supersede local zoning laws. This is not good public policy. Government that is closest to the people governs the best. But Fairfield County should not complain. They are getting exactly what they voted for.       Connecticut has addressed this issue in the past. In 1990 – in an effort to make Connecticut’s suburbs more diverse - the legislature passed The Affordable Housing Appeals Act (often referred to as 8-30g) giving developers the right to sue towns who rejected their proposals if the town had less than 10% affordable housing. Affordable housing is defined as when a resident needs 30% or less of his or her income to pay the rent or mortgage.       Only a minority of towns has reached this 10% threshold and Connecticut’s school system is the ninth most segregated in the country. Eighty-four percent of Blacks are in schools … [Read more...]

Sports Gambling is Another Tax on the Poor and Minorities

         While our political class is hoping to aid the urban minorities by proposing zoning law changes to allow more affordable housing in the suburbs, and “woke” school curriculums, another plan is being hatched to further soak urban minorities of the little disposable income they have – sports gambling.       This regressive taxation against our poor has been going for decades. Connecticut legalized the lottery in the early 1970s and with clever marketing plans, convinced poor minorities that they actually had a chance of winning enough money to change their lives - even though the odds are infinitesimal.       The lottery now brings in $370 million annually to the Connecticut government’s coffers and studies have shown the vast majority of ticket sales occurs in overwhelmingly poor minority neighborhoods - over 50%. There are not a lot of Powerball winners in New Canaan, Darien or Greenwich. But this was even made worse with casino gambling.       Governor Weicker made a deal with the … [Read more...]

Bitcoin Challenges the Powers That Be

        While the chattering classes are blathering about the racism of Dr. Seuss, the sexual harassment of Pepé Le Pew and the wokeness of Mr. Potato Head, a subterranean herculean battle is brewing over a new financial asset that could give the masses unprecedented power to prevent profligate governments from impoverishing them by printing money ad infinitum – Bitcoin.       Bitcoin is a digital cryptocurrency, meaning that it is protected by complex codes rendering it impossible to counterfeit. Its origins are somewhat mysterious but the consensus is that in 2008 a consortium of geniuses with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto decided to create the digital equivalent of gold. But unlike digging in the earth or panning for it in stream, bitcoins are mined from Bitcoin software by ambitious computer geeks solving increasingly complex computer problems and then being rewarded a number of bitcoins. The number of bitcoins that would be released was fixed at 21,000,000 and presently, almost 19,000,000 have been mined. … [Read more...]