I could drive 70 miles to Micro Center down in MA, but then I'd also have to pay sales tax.
Implying, I guess, that he wouldn't pay sales tax if he ordered online. That's how it works in the US anyway.
$106 billion was spent by US government on climate research by 2010
I... don't know where to begin with this figure. If "by 2010" you mean the amount which has been cumulatively spent on climate research since the United States was first conceived as a country, I probably would still not believe you. But maybe, at the outside. And only if you adjusted for inflation and you included work to address the 1930's Dust Bowl as "climate research."
That is a staggeringly ridiculous number, and the fact that you would present it here as though it were true, as though it were a plausible thing to say, represents a deep myopia. The total R&D budget for the US for 2015 is $135B, most of that goes to defense research.
I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.