Thanks, Obama, For Putting Money In My Pocket

The Week has published a blurb about how "just 27 percent of likely voters believe the new economic stimulus package will personally benefit them or their family." That's a surprisingly low number and I wonder if people think the up-front costs of all these global warming, energy, health, and other initiatives outweigh what would be huge economic payoffs down the road.

Regardless of the sad lack of forward-thinking by most Americans, we got a wonderful e-mail yesterday at work from our human-resources department. It noted that the public transportation pre-tax reimbursement per month is going up from $120 to $230, which will actually cover quite a bit more of the costs of getting to work. There's also a $20-per-month pre-tax allotment for biking to work, which is great since I bike about half or a third of the time and take the Metro subway the rest of the time.

I'm not entirely sure exactly how much of that is directly linked to Obama's economic stimulus plan. But what is definitely linked is that the federal withholdings have changed under the plan and my paycheck is bigger now than it was last month.

So now that I'm in better financial shape, maybe it's time to think about putting some solar panels on my roof (in reality, may have to wait to move into a single-family household for that) to go along with the geothermal heating and cooling in my condo, the rooftop garden, and the wind power that we purchase from Pepco to run our electricity.