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Washington Can’t Ease Our Traffic Jams

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Tuesday, 06 October 2026

Written by John Hood

The federal government projects trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. Perhaps that’s the problem: Washington’s fiscal irresponsibility has become so reckless, its costs so gargantuan, that the issue is hard for the average voter to grasp and, thus, prioritize.
So, I will try to make concrete what may seem abstract, and local what may seem far away. Let’s talk about traffic jams in Raleigh, Charlotte, and other North Carolina communities.
As frustrating as traffic jams are, and as wasteful of time and resources, the alternative is worse: little traffic at all. That broad swaths of North Carolina continue to add people, companies, and job opportunities is an affirmation that our state remains an attractive mix of natural and human resources — and that our leaders have, for the most part, governed more wisely than their counterparts in other parts of the country.
Still, policymakers need to upgrade and expand the transportation infrastructure needed to accommodate such growth and lay the foundation for future investment, in-migration, and family formation. For airports, seaports, and rail lines, the mechanisms for financing such capital projects are straightforward. These enterprises, be they public or private, can easily charge their users for their services. These funds, in turn, pay for infrastructure projects or are used to cover principal and interest for the loans or bond issuances required to finance them.
With roads and bridges, the story is more complicated. Users still bear the vast majority of the cost of the infrastructure itself, albeit indirectly through fuel taxes and vehicle registrations rather than direct charges (i.e. tolls). More importantly, most of the value of vehicular transportation can be found not in asphalt, concrete, signage, or safety protection but in the vehicles themselves, nearly all of which are privately owned, operated, and insured.
Over time, however, the rough approximation of a user fee represented by per-gallon fuel taxes and per-vehicle registration fees became less of a meaningful approximation. Vehicles traveled more miles per gallon. Electric and hybrid vehicles also altered the math. North Carolina and other states responded by raising tax rates, hiking registration fees, redirecting tax revenue from the sale of auto parts and services to highway purposes, and reducing the extent to which any highway-related revenues are diverted to non-highway purposes.
Faced with the same mismatch between highway demand and highway-related revenue, federal policymakers made less-defensible choices. Congress has routinely subsidized the federal Highway Trust Fund with general revenues, sometimes paying for nearly a third of annual expenditures that way — even as Washington ran massive annual deficits.
Before 2008, explains the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, highway tax revenue dedicated to the federal trust fund was “sufficient to pay for outlays from the fund.” Since then, Congress has transferred hundreds of billions of dollars from general revenues to the federal highway program, including $118 billion in 2021 alone. According to a recent Congressional Budget Office projection, the federal program will require another $150 billion infusion from outside the system to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through the end of the 2031 fiscal year. Beyond that year, the projections are likely to get gloomier, not sunnier.
See where this is going? Whatever you think of using federal income taxes to pay for local road projects, this practice is going to end sooner rather than later. Federal debt now exceeds America’s annual economic output. The Social Security and Medicare “trust” funds will be exhausted in about seven years. Even if the current military operations against Iran end sometime soon, it would be unreasonable to expect a sudden outbreak of stability around the world’s key economic chokepoints (the straits of Hormuz, Bab El-Mandab, Taiwan, and Malacca, for example). Because massive federal deficits will keep interest rates painfully elevated, I believe future presidents and lawmakers will be forced into serious actions. One of them will be to curtail if not end federal subsidies for highways.
Just something else to think about while stuck in traffic. You’re welcome.

Editor’s note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Publisher's Pen: Jacquelyn Brown Has Earned Our Vote for Cumberland County Board of Education

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Tuesday, 06 October 2026

Written by Bill Bowman

As publisher of Up & Coming Weekly and a dedicated community advocate, I’ve watched Fayetteville and Cumberland County grow, evolve and face more than our fair share of challenges.
I’ve introduced Truman the Dragon and read Kidsville News! stories to kindergartners who now have children—and even grandchildren—of their own. They still live happily here in Cumberland County, and they all share something important: they all have good jobs they proudly call careers, they were all educated in Cumberland County Public Schools, and they all learned to read and write in complete sentences.
Today, as adults, those same former students worry that our educational leadership in Cumberland County has drifted away from teaching these basic necessities—causing devastating harm to our children, crippling their futures and robbing them of what previous generations took for granted: a good education.
End-of-grade testing data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction shows grade-level reading proficiency for elementary students sits right around 47% to 50%. Not good. Here in Cumberland County, 50% of our children are reading below grade level, and math numbers are just as bad.
We need intelligent, experienced, educational leadership on the Cumberland County School Board that does more than make baseless promises or grandstand at public forums. True leadership is steady, consistent, and means getting involved and listening to concerns and ideas of teachers and parents while keeping the focus exactly where it belongs: on the education, success and well-being of our children.
This November, there are several concerned and qualified candidates stepping up and wanting to restore and advocate for these values. But one incumbent, in particular, has already proven herself a dedicated champion for our children. That is why Jacquelyn Brown has earned my support in her bid for re-election to the Cumberland County Board of Education.
Jacquelyn has proven herself over the last four years on the board. More importantly, she knows education from the inside out. After more than three decades in the classroom and walking the halls of Cumberland County Schools, she understands what it means to show up every single morning and face the real challenges confronting teachers and administrators. She knows firsthand how board policy decisions ripple down and impact teachers and staff and how they ultimately affect the quality of our children’s education.
During her tenure, Jacquelyn has demonstrated leadership principles that are all too rare in public service. She listens thoughtfully to her constituents and makes herself accessible to the public.
She sets ideology aside, approaches her work with humility and relates to the real-life experiences of parents, teachers and school staff. She understands that supporting Cumberland County Schools requires staying closely connected to the people who engage with education every day.
Without a doubt, CCS is at a critical juncture. We have a strong foundation of talent on the board and exceptional talent waiting in the wings, ready to make a positive difference. We need experienced educational leaders who are grounded in the Fayetteville community, who understand the operational realities and complexities of public education, and who never lose sight of their primary purpose—preparing every child in Cumberland County for a quality education and a bright, productive future.
Jacquelyn Brown embodies that spirit, skill and dedication. Her achievements are a matter of record, reflecting a deep commitment to educational excellence and fiscal responsibility.
At Up & Coming Weekly, we care deeply about this community and its children. I’ve made a career of it and built a company around it. It is rare that we personally endorse a candidate, but these are crucial times for Cumberland County education, and the futures of our children are at stake. I urge our readers—whether or not they have children or grandchildren in the school system—to take the time to study the backgrounds and qualifications of all the candidates and understand their vision for Cumberland County schools.
I know Jacquelyn Brown, and I am supporting her for the Cumberland County Board of Education. She has earned our trust, and more importantly, she has earned our vote.
She deserves yours.
Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

(Photo: Jacquelyn Brown is running for the Cumberland County School Board as an incumbent. She has served on the Board since 2022. Courtesy Photo)

Troy's Perspective: Lessons in "Animal Farm"

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Tuesday, 06 October 2026

Written by Troy Williams

It has been a little more than 80 years since English author George Orwell published his celebrated satirical novel Animal Farm in 1945. When I was in high school more than 50 years ago, Animal Farm was required reading. TIME would later include it among its 100 best English-language novels. Today, through my own informal observations, it seems increasingly difficult to find people under 50 who have read the novel, or, in some cases, even heard of it.
Stay with me. This journey back into literature and history has a point. Animal Farm is written as a beast fable. The animals of Manor Farm overthrow their irresponsible human owner, Mr. Jones, believing they can create a society in which animals will be equal, free, and prosperous. But something happens along the way. The revolutionaries who promised equality gradually became the new ruling class. The novel was a political allegory based largely on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent development of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. The enduring lesson of Animal Farm is a movement's name and promises do not tell us how it will ultimately govern.
Fast-forward to 2026. The word "Nazi" is frequently thrown around in American political debate, including accusations directed at President Donald Trump and other conservatives. But history deserves greater precision than political name-calling. The Nazi Party's complete name was the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Again, Orwell's lesson is useful: judge political movements not simply by what they call themselves, but by what they propose to do with power. That brings us back to America. The Democratic Socialists of America's current national program proposes fundamental changes to the American constitutional structure.
Among other things, it calls for abolishing the Senate and Electoral College and replacing the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary selected by and subordinate to Congress. Americans ought to know these proposals exist and examine them for themselves.
That brings me to my generation. Baby Boomers, born between 1946 -1964, now approximately 62 to 80 years old.
Our generation grew up during the Cold War. We remember civil-defense discussions, nuclear fears, the Soviet Union, and Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev led the Soviet Union from 1953 until 1964. Americans heard Soviet leaders proclaim their confidence that communism would ultimately surpass capitalism. Meanwhile, Soviet advances in nuclear weapons, missiles, and space technology made the ideological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union frighteningly real.
My generation received a heavy dose of anti-communist education and rhetoric. It would probably have been difficult for many Americans living through that period to imagine that, within their lifetimes, some of their children and grandchildren would openly embrace socialism and that some Americans would openly identify with communist ideas. But history moves in unexpected directions. The socialist/communist thought process has infiltrated politics from Capitol Hill to City Hall.
Perhaps young Americans who want to become revolutionaries fully understand the political systems they advocate. Perhaps some do not. Either way, there is an inexpensive place to begin the conversation. Go to the library. Find George Orwell. And read Animal Farm. The animals of Manor Farm still have something to teach us.

Double think: Two plus two equals five

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Tuesday, 29 September 2026

Written by Pitt Dickey

Let’s see what our old pal George Orwell might say about the fun times in which we find ourselves. For reasons unknown, I recently revisited George’s rollicking laugh riot book “1984.” If you haven’t read it recently, consider taking a gander at it. George imagined Stalin as Big Brother, who became the life of the Party.
Any resemblance to Big Brother and our current Administration is purely coincidental, accidental, and I don’t mean nuthin’ by it. Draw your own analogies if you dare.
Big Brother developed his own language called New Speak in order to control the masses’ ability to think. The goal of Big Brother was to have all his subjects master the art of Double Think. Double Think is the ability to simultaneously hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time and accept both of them as true.
For example, consider the Western Michigan vs. Michigan football game in which it appeared time had run out and Western Michigan had defeated Michigan in an amazing upset.
Oops.
The Big Ten officials suddenly found another one second left to play despite what the field clock said. The Big Ten has a Double Secret Clock in which they store additional time if Michigan needs to try another Hail Mary Pass. The Refs on the field called the game over until the Overlords in the sky box pulled out the Double Secret Clock, giving Michigan another shot at winning. Like Schrödinger's cat, which is both alive and dead, the football game was both over and not over. Double Think in action.
Diversions are key to Big Brother’s control of the population. To keep the common folks occupied and politically inert, Big Brother supplied Prolefeed, which is entertainment for the masses like ancient Rome’s Bread and Circuses, or more recently White House lawn UFC fights and car races in downtown DC.
Big Brother had three main priorities to be Double Thought: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”
The Ministry of Love was in charge of law, order and obedience. If you believed, you were practicing Good Think. If you did not agree with the Party’s position, you were guilty of Thought Crime.
The Ministry of Love’s Thought Police would round you up to send you to the Joy Camp for indoctrination or extermination. Some soreheads might apply the term Thought Police for ICE and Joy Camps for DHS detention camps. But that would be wrong and Thought Crime.
If you really stepped outside of the Party line, you would end up in Room 101 in the Ministry of Love where something Double Plus Ungood would happen to you. If you were too much trouble, you would become an Unperson, vaporized, and all references to your existence wiped out.
It was necessary to keep the masses riled up by an enemy. To do so, citizens were required to participate in a daily Two Minute Hate where enemies of the Big Brother would appear on all the TV screens.
The people would then scream hatred and threats at the TV against whoever the enemy of the day was. Once a year, there was Hate Week, in which everyone was required to spend a week hating who Big Brother hated. Ungood things would happen if you didn’t scream your hate loud enough.
If you did not screw up your face into an appropriate grimace of hate, you were guilty of Face Crime, which led to a visit from the Thought Police.
One of my favorite New Speak terms is Duck Speak, which is the ability to talk using only your larynx without using your brain to recite mindlessly whatever Big Brother wanted you to say. Quacking like a duck without thought is the ideal means to stay out of the clutches of the Ministry of Love and Room 101.
The protagonist of "1984" was Winston, who worked in the Ministry of Truth rewriting news articles and books to comply with the current Party line. Old newspaper articles that did not agree with Big Brother’s recent lies were tossed into the Memory Hole and burned to eliminate anything contrary to Big Brother’s current position. Rewriting history was crucial for Big Brother. His quote was “ Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
Ponder the Memory Hole’s success in destroying Confederate statutes or the metamorphosis of the violent DC January 6 rioters into peaceful tourists filled with love.
Who are you going to believe? Big Brother or your lying eyes? Practice Good Think by believing 2+2 = 5.
Cheer up. It could be worse. You could be a Western Michigan football fan.

(Illustration by Pitt Dickey)