This week, from Bachmann to Obama, the focus has been on prices at the pump. It’s been suggested that a steep drop in gas prices would kick start an economic recovery. If that’s true, the question is how to make that happen. Realistically, the U.S. government only has so much control over the price of…
This week, I took my kids to the beach. My youngest boy, Charlie, is fascinated by the ocean but really, not a fan. He loves the idea of the waves but he hates falling over and he really hates getting salt water in his eyes. I watched him time after time run straight into the…
The soaring price of gasoline is definitely attracting some attention these days. According to the most recent data available, it will cost you, on average, $1.065/gallon more to fill your tank this year than at the same time last year. Considering that the typical American drives 13,476 miles per year, that means that we’re spending…
President Obama hit the road this weekend to promote his plan to boost the country’s infrastructure by a whopping $50 billion. Noting that updates to bridges and roads have been largely pushed aside over the last few years, the President said that now is the time to make improvements: We’ve always had the best infrastructure……
I’m writing this particular post from my hotel room in Durham, NC, just across the way from Duke Hospital where my dad had surgery on yesterday. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. He came through surgery just fine – although the family and I are quite worn out from dealing with Duke (yes,…
My daughter asked me the other day why the birds couldn’t breathe. It took me awhile to figure out that she was talking about what’s going on in the Gulf. We’re going on day 46 of the BP spill. So far, BP has tried robots, drilling a relief well, a contaminant dome, “Top Hat”, “Top…
Cities are getting mighty creative in their efforts to fight rising deficits. No run of the mill income/wage/salary/vocation tax increases here. Philadelphia wants to raise its sales tax; Oakland is taxing marijuana and now DC is considering raising… its gas tax? DC Council Member Tommy Wells (D) has suggested a gas tax hike of 3.5…
Massachusetts has always been a little – we’ll call it different – when it comes to politics. And in some cases, it’s paid off. It’s true that you can drive through the state without being assaulted by billboard after billboard. And the state is, relatively speaking, free of litter and there’s very little in the…
There has been a lot of discussion lately about increasing the national gas tax. In fact, a proposal to increase the tax, which currently stands at 19 cents per gallon, has been touted as recently as last week. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission (NSTIFC) has reported that the current infrastructure is dated and…
There has been a lot of talk about which presidential candidate has the best tax plan for “middle class” America. It’s an interesting question because I’m not sure that anyone can actually define “middle class” anymore – my readers seem to feel that it’s all over the place. Middle class – as it’s widely defined…