Category: Federal issues
-
Is It the Death Knell For Dominion’s Pipeline?
By Peter Galuszka For more than a decade, hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas and oil has transformed the American energy picture, leading to big revivals in such energy fields such as Marcellus in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and the Bakken field in the Dakotas. It has prompted Dominion Energy and its utility partners to…
-
A Look at Richmond and COVID-19
—
by
in Agriculture & forestry, Business and Economy, Children and Families, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Culture wars, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Money in politics, Planning, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Resilience, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Telecommunications, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Here is a roundup story I wrote for Style Weekly that was published today that explains the effects of COVID-19 on the Richmond area. Hopefully, BR readers will find it of interest. It was a tough piece to report. The impacts of the deadly virus are very complicated and multi-faceted. An especially…
-
How Virginia Would Fare Under President Biden, Part 1
By DJ Rippert And then there were two. Today, Elizabeth Warren announced that she will withdraw from the presidential race. That leaves Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard (yes, she’s still running) as the remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination. Given that Tulsi Gabbard has exactly one delegate (from American Samoa where she was…
-
Boomergeddon Update: $31 Trillion Debt by 2030
by James A. Bacon According to the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections, the federal budget deficit will hit $1.0 trillion in 2020 and will average $1.3 trillion annually for the rest of the decade. Deficits will increase from 4.6% of gross domestic product each year to 5.4%. Most alarmingly, chronic deficits will push the…
-
Will VA Now Help Kill the Electoral College?
By Steve Haner Add this to the pile of really bad ideas that now have a chance to pass in New Blue Virginia: Allowing California and New York to decide how to cast Virginia’s electoral votes. Since millions who slept through government class were stunned to learn in 2016 that the popular vote doesn’t pick…
-
Send in the Carriers! What Carriers?
By Peter Galuszka The stunning slaying of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ultra-violent Islamic State terrorist leader, on Oct. 25 by U.S. Special Forces in northwestern Syria was the most spectacular such endeavor since Osama bin-Linden was dispatched in Pakistan in 2011. President Donald Trump, under attack for withdrawing most American forces from war-torn Syria, got…
-
The Deep State as Competitive Economic Advantage
Stephen Moret’s sales pitch to the Amazon in the HQ2 deal offered an analysis that was both acute and chilling — acute if you’re an economic developer seeking to promote Northern Virginia as a place for tech companies to do business, chilling if you are an American worried about the growing overlordship of the technocratic…
-
Caution: These Links Will Ruin Your Sleep
A campaign pitch for an incumbent member of Congress you will not hear: You are getting $4 worth of government for every $3 you pay in taxes and fees, and the other buck is piled on as debt for your kids and grand kids to pay! You should vote me back in! The Treasury Department’s…
-
Hurricanes, Risk, and Fiscal Collapse
John Rubino, publisher of Dollarcollapse.com, and I think a lot alike when it comes to the inevitable fiscal collapse of the United States. The country (indeed the globe) is riding high today on a giant credit bubble right now, but sooner or later the bubble will pop and the economy will crash. If you buy…
-
Media reaction to Goodlatte’s 2018 Chesapeake Bay Amendment
Background: Republican Rep Bob Goodlatte (Va – 6th) has proposed an amendment to an appropriations package which would forbid the EPA from using federal funds to take action against bay states that fail to meet pollution-reduction targets set by the EPA and agreed-to by the states. The amendment is to the 2019 Interior, Environment, Financial…
-
Goodbye and Good Riddance to Goodlatte
Carpetbagger. Bob Goodlatte is the 13-term congressman from Virginia’s 6th Congressional District who has blessedly chosen to retire this year. In my opinion he represents just about everything that is wrong with the GOP. Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts and educated at Bates College in Maine, Goodlatte somehow avoids the “carpetbagger” moniker so quickly put on Terry…
-
Saul Trumpinsky – Donald Trump and Saul Alinsky
Yes Virginia, there is a United States. Most posts published on this blog are dedicated to Virginia-specific issues. This post is an exception. It is an attempt to understand the unexpected popularity of Donald Trump. While all states are impacted by the federal government and national politics, Virginia is perhaps the most affected state. The proximity…
-
Seven Years and Counting…
Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (HI) will be depleted in seven years — three years sooner than forecast previously, according to the 2018 Annual Report of the Medicare Boards of Trustees. By 2026, Medicare Part A, which covers hospital payments, will be running a $52 billion annual deficit, a gap that will increase rapidly in…
-
Make The Next Round A Double
Virginia leaders like to get up on their soapboxes and worry that Virginia is too dependent on defense spending and promise elaborate strategies to diversify the economy. Be grateful in some places the focus remains on building more combat ships at Newport News Shipbuilding, keeping its 20,000 plus employees and thousands of suppliers and contractors…
-
Can the U.S. Outgrow Its National Debt?
In previous posts I have described the Republican-backed 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a Hail Mary pass, a gamble that by boosting economic growth the United States can outgrow the burden of chronic deficits and a rapidly accumulating national debt. I wasn’t optimistic, but I was willing to wait and see. After the…