Free Republic

Maryland and Virginia will partner to rebuild and widen the American Legion Bridge in a ­billion-dollar project to relieve congestion at the Washington region’s worst traffic bottleneck, the states’ governors announced Tuesday. In an unusual example of interstate cooperation, Virginia has agreed to help pay for the project even though most of the bridge — like the Potomac River flowing beneath it — belongs to Maryland. The plan marks a breakthrough in a years-long impasse over widening the bridge on the northwestern stretch of the Capital Beltway. In the past, Maryland has said it didn’t have enough money for the...

Interstate 10 is now three lanes both ways between Tucson and Casa Grande, but your commute probably won’t get faster. The Arizona Department of Transportation projects I-10 could be bumper-to-bumper all the way to Casa Grande during rush hour by 2035. The route currently carries around 60,000 vehicles daily, and that could quadruple depending on the region’s growth, according to an ADOT spokesperson. John Moffatt, director of economic development for Pima County, said those backups won’t just be bad for commuters. He said they will hurt trade with Mexico. “Trucks are like water. They find the path of least resistance...

Does this sound like a healthy economy to you? * In nine of the last 10 years, the economy has grown more slowly than professional forecasters had predicted. * Annual G.D.P. growth has not reached 3 percent in almost 15 years. * Median net worth for American households has declined, after adjusting for inflation, since the late 1990s. Those are all big warning signs. They show that the United States is suffering through an era of slow growth — and that the gains from that growth are flowing disproportionately to a small slice of mostly affluent households, making the gains...

Republican Mark Finchem and Democrat Tom O’Halleran agree on at least one thing regarding Interstate 11. Both expect to be deceased before the proposed roadway becomes a reality. Finchem, a District 11 state representative spoke to Hidden Valley residents last week in a gathering attended by Blanca Varela, a representative from Congressman O’Halleran’s office, at Mountain View Community Church. The proposed interstate is a long-range goal of Arizona Department of Transportation and is expected to pass through Hidden Valley south of Maricopa. While Finchem has been outspoken against I-11, O’Halleran has remained neutral. Varela said the congressman had expressed to...

Despite pleas from two former state governors and at least 90 environmental and community groups and businesses, Gov. Ron DeDantis on Friday signed a multibillion-dollar plan to build long stretches of toll roads across undeveloped sections of the state. The legislation has been labeled “the worst environmental bill in twenty years.” And the Florida Sierra Club has warned of pristine areas becoming urban sprawl, where “subdivisions and strip malls will proliferate and the natural resources that bring visitors to the state will be overused and overrun.” DeSantis approved the bill anyway. The announcement came not from the governor’s press office...

President Trump and Democratic leaders have discovered the one policy that unites Washington: spending money we don’t have. Yet their bipartisan pledge to spend an added $2 trillion on infrastructure over the next decade faces serious obstacles if these leaders are to responsibly improve our infrastructure. First, Washington should spend only as much as it is willing to offset with other savings. Putting $2 trillion on the national credit card would boost deficits that are already on course to surpass $2 trillion a year within a decade, due mostly to entitlements. These deficits are projected to push ­annual interest costs...

When older workers participate in the job market, it not only lowers unemployment rates but, in an economy like today’s, it fills a vital skills gap in the labor force. A recent article from Reuters suggests that the economic boom of the past few years has been buoyed by Baby Boomers who have found their way back to the workforce. The report cites data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that says 3 million Americans over the age of 55 joined (or rejoined) the workforce over the past three years. For perspective, that makes up approximately 60% of the total...

The D.C. region could be suffocated by even more traffic if major improvements to the region’s bus system do not come soon, a draft report obtained by WTOP finds. Even so, making those changes in a way that avoids negative impacts could be extremely challenging. The Washington Area Bus Transformation Project draft strategy’s executive summary, labeled “not for circulation,” paints a dire picture of what happens if bus-only lanes, totally revamped bus routes and other changes are not implemented: “Without transforming the bus system, the region’s competitiveness and livability are at risk.” The report groups more than two dozen recommendations...

The US economy surged “unexpectedly” in the first quarter of 2019 to 3.2% growth. Economists predicted a 2.5% growth. Jack Posobiec ✝️ ✔ @JackPosobiec 🔥 Piers Morgan ✔ @piersmorgan BREAKING: US first-quarter GDP rockets by 3.2%, vs 2.5% expected growth. Brace yourselves Trump-haters, if the economy keeps doing so well, President @realDonaldTrump will be almost unstoppable in 2020. 277 9:11 AM - Apr 26, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 113 people are talking about this This won’t make many headlines… The US economy was boosted by a SHRINKING trade gap. Via the Wall Street Journal.

Stuart Varney, host of “Varney & Co.” on Fox Business, said Wednesday the new Wall Street record high can be attributed to the “Trump growth agenda,” which he said “has been wildly successful.” Varney made the statements on “Fox & Friends” the morning after the S&P 500 hit an all-time high, recovering from last year's dramatic plunge. “We’re in earnings season. That's the time when the big corporations tell us how much money did you make. That's what they are telling us right now,” said Varney, a Fox News business contributor on “Fox & Friends.” “The expectation was the profits...

If you’re an American taxpayer, you probably got a tax cut last year. And there’s a good chance you don’t believe it. Ever since President Trump signed the Republican-sponsored tax bill in December 2017, independent analyses have consistently found that a large majority of Americans would owe less because of the law. Preliminary data based on tax filings has shown the same. Yet as the first tax filing season under the new law wraps up on Monday, taxpayers are skeptical. A survey conducted in early April for The New York Times by the online research platform SurveyMonkey found that just...

After reading how the Chinese economy is "tanking" because they "only" had a 6.6% economic growth rate, and how the US economy is "exploding" because of 2.7% economic growth, I thought it might be illustrative to collect various links on this subject. CHINA China’s 2018 economic growth sinks to 3-decade low China's economy grew 6.6% in 2018, the lowest pace in 28 yearsUSA U.S. economy to grow 2.7 percent in 2018, boosted by Trump tax overhaulUS economy grew modestly to start 2018United States GDP Growth Rate | 2019US Economic Outlook for 2019 and BeyondUS economic growth revised down to 2.2%...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- If a "community grid" is chosen to replace Interstate 81 in downtown Syracuse, what will happen to the land that's now under the aging viaduct's shadow? Whether it will be turned into green space or developed commercially is still an open question, according to city and state officials. A group of local architects is hoping to force the issue. The local chapter of the American Institute of Architects estimated in a recent paper that 18.6 acres of land will be made available if the 1.4-mile elevated highway is taken down. Taking the viaduct down and beefing up...

By Bruce DePuyt — When Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) announced a major plan to widen three Maryland roadways last year, even transportation insiders were caught off-guard. “I was surprised by it, but I rejoiced at it,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs. “As much as people are loath to admit it, the congestion in Maryland has limited economic development in the state. And [it has] impacted the quality of life because of the amount of hours — more than 80 hours a year [on average] — we spend being stuck in...

If Elon Musk’s Boring Company succeeds, the fantasy of slipping into a pod and being whisked from Washington, D.C. to New York City in less than 30 minutes may become a reality. As startling as that might be, such transformational projects are nothing new. Think of how Americans of a half-century ago felt once the national interstate highway system was complete and a cross-country road trip shortened from two weeks to five days. Infrastructure improvements in the U.S. – such as the interstate system, built in the 1950s and 1960s, the first transcontinental railway in the 1860s, and the Erie...

Trump wins election and the economy starts clawing itself out of the liberal grave it was forced into. Trump rolls back EPA rules and the economy stands up and starts walking. Trump gets tax reform and the economy starts galloping like a thoroughbred. Trump starts slapping our trade partners with tariffs and instead of economic calamity, the jobs you can't bring back, start returning on their own and the economy is now soaring.... What next.... Where are the finial restrains, real or imagined, that Trump can remove.

The price of a can of Coca-Cola? Likely going up. A package of Pampers? That too. Plane tickets? They also may be more expensive. These items and more may cost more in the coming months as people start feeling the effects of higher fuel prices and raw-material costs as well as a range of tariffs. Janette Hendricks said she has noticed higher prices on “just about everything” in the past three months or so. That’s put a little pressure on the recently retired nurse in Washington. So she goes shopping less often, “makes things stretch,” and she always shops for...

Mike Gallagher, managing director at financial consultancy Continuum Economics, played down stellar predictions of growth by Donald Trump, adding that recent polices implemented by the U.S. president would only provide short-term benefits for the economy. Trump told talk show host Sean Hannity on Friday that the U.S. could reach historic growth rates if the trade deficit is cut in half. His remarks followed a data release showing that the U.S. grew at 4.1 percent in the second quarter of the year. He claimed that the country could reach GDP growth of 8 or 9 percent, which is far higher than...

RUSH: Trump promised it. His economic advisers assured us that it would happen. The Drive-By Media said it was impossible to happen; it couldn’t happen. Trump was deranged to predict that it would happen. Trump was unreasonable. Trump was giving the American people false hope! Hillary Clinton said that this was dangerous; Trump is proving his incompetence by suggesting that we could grow the economy at an annual rate of 4%. We’re gonna go back in time here and find various bits of evidence of all these so-called experts claiming it’s impossible, couldn’t be done, how it was misleading. It...

President Donald Trump hailed a new economic report showing the U.S. economy grew at a clip of 4.1 per cent in the second quarter, hitting a high pace not reached since 2014. 'It is indeed a big one,' Trump said. Trump said he was 'honored' by the growth figure and called it a 'great day.' The president made an unscheduled appearance on the South Lawn of the White House, flanked by his economic advisors, to tout the news. He promised the high growth rate was not a 'one-time' thing. 'As the trade deals come in one by one we're going...