Highway Funding Runs out of Gas

Highway Funding Runs out of Gas

Lawmakers writing the transportation spending bill have a problem. Actually they have 89 billion problems, because that’s how many dollars they are short between what they want to spend over the next six years and the revenue bean counters expect. Considering...
Nixing the Pentagon Slush Fund

Nixing the Pentagon Slush Fund

The Senate Armed Services Committee has finished its work on the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that guides Pentagon policies. The measure authorizes $514 billion in spending for the Pentagon, along with the Energy Department’s national security...
Paying for the Climate Change Pivot

Paying for the Climate Change Pivot

We only have a few decades to deal with climate change. If humanity fails to cut back dramatically on carbon emissions by 2050, according to an alarming new UN report, our planet may warm past the point of our ability to fix the problem. Given global dependence on...
Meanwhile, the War on Tobacco Limps Ahead

Meanwhile, the War on Tobacco Limps Ahead

Smoking isn’t in the news much these days, but maybe it should be. Nearly half a million Americans still die from it each year. As the leading preventable cause of death in our country, tobacco kills way more people than guns, car accidents, and drug overdoses...
Want to See Where Your Taxes Go?

Want to See Where Your Taxes Go?

Millions of Americans file their federal income tax returns by April 15 each year with no idea what the government actually does with all that money. This is surprising, considering that individuals are our nation’s primary bill payers. Income taxes paid by...