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To: longnshort who wrote (1109091)	1/9/2019 7:25:09 AM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 1573927

OOPS! POS FatRump U.S. DEFICIT SKYROCKETS AGAIN, Putting It on Track for $1+ Trillion This Year nytimes.com By Jim Tankersley Jan. 8, 2019 WASHINGTON — The federal budget deficit continued to rise in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 and is on pace to top $1 trillion for the year, as President Trump’s signature tax cuts continue to reduce corporate tax revenue, data released Tuesday shows. The monthly numbers from the Congressional Budget Office also show an increase in spending on federal debt as rising interest rates drive up the cost of the government’s borrowing. The widening deficit comes despite a booming economy and a low unemployment rate that would typically help fill the government’s coffers. Federal spending outpaced revenue by $317 billion over the first three months of the fiscal year, which began in October, the budget office reported. That was 41 percent higher than the same period a year ago, or 17 percent after factoring in payment shifts that made the fiscal 2018 first-quarter deficit appear smaller than it actually was. The report did show one area of increasing revenue — from Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Revenue from levies on imported steel, aluminum and Chinese goods were up $8 billion from the same quarter a year ago, an 83 percent increase. That increase, however, is nowhere close to the levels needed to support Mr. Trump’s frequent claims that his tariffs will help pay down the national debt. This fiscal year is the first to fully incorporate the reduced tax rates that Mr. Trump signed into law in late 2017, including cuts for individuals and closely held businesses and steep reductions for corporations. It continued a trend from the final three quarters of 2018, after the tax cuts took effect: falling tax receipts, at a time of relatively strong economic growth — a combination that shows the tax cuts are achieving nothing close to the administration’s promise that they would pay for themselves. Corporate tax receipts fell by $9 billion for the quarter, or 15 percent. Individual receipts fell by $17 billion, or 4 percent. Interest costs on the debt rose by $16 billion for the quarter, or 19 percent. Interest costs for December were up 47 percent from the same month in 2017. You have 4 free articles remaining. Subscribe to The Times “It is entirely predictable and utterly depressing,” said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates deficit reduction. “At a time when we should be working to keep the strong economy going and bring our debt down, our lawmakers seem unwilling to pay for anything and they just keep adding to the debt. All signs point to that it will continue to get worse before it gets better.” Karl Smith, a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, a think tank in Washington, welcomed the numbers as a sign that American fiscal policy is continuing to boost growth and encourage investment, as the economy encounters challenges including Mr. Trump’s trade war with China. “The U.S. is facing headwinds from a global slowdown,” Mr. Smith said, “and needs both the stimulus of high deficits and an incentive to keep corporations expanding through what’s likely to be a rough patch of uncertainty, if not outright global recession.” Editors’ Picks ‘A Pumping Conspiracy’: Why Workers Smuggled Breast Pumps Into Prison Forget the Suburbs, It’s Country or Bust The Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Very Litigious Bikini ADVERTISEMENT Some of that uncertainty stems from the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government, which show no signs of ending. Among other disruptions, the shutdown has slowed the release of the Treasury Department’s own monthly deficit estimates. They were scheduled to be released later this week. But a note on the department’s website says that release will now be determined when the shutdown ends.

To: longnshort who wrote (1109091)	1/9/2019 7:32:52 AM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573927

OOPS! After three years of decline, carbon emissions rose sharply in the US in 2018 cnn.com By Kevin Flower, CNN Updated 1:22 PM ET, Tue January 8, 2019 (CNN)After three years of decline, climate-change-causing carbon emissions rose sharply in the United States last year, according to new research. Carbon emissions increased 3.4% in 2018, marking the second-largest annual gain in more than two decades, according to preliminary power generation data analyzed by the Rhodium Group, an independent economic policy research provider. This follows a Global Carbon Project report in December that said global carbon emissions were estimated to rise by 2.7% for all of 2018. The new research indicated that US power sector emissions as a whole rose by 1.9% and that the transportation sector "held its title as the largest source of US emissions for the third year running," due to a growth in demand for diesel and jet fuel offsetting a modest decline in gasoline use. The construction and industry sectors also saw sizable emission increases. "Most of the increase last year was directly attributable to an increase in economic growth," said Trevor Houser, who leads Rhodium Group's Energy and Climate team, but he added that "it does not have to be the case that a rising economy results in rising emissions." Houser said affordable technology exists to grow the economy while reducing emissions, "but that requires policy to deploy those technologies in the market. And we've seen a freeze in that kind of policy at the federal level over the past few years." The lack of strategy in the country's decarbonization efforts, the research says, has contributed to the gap in meeting the goal set in the Paris Agreement on climate change, a landmark 2015 accord that the US Trump administration has promised to abandon. President Trump has at times denied the basic science of climate change, which states that burning coal, oil and natural gas produces emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. But it has become increasingly clear that warming is happening faster than previously thought and with worse results. In November, the administration released its fourth national climate assessment outlining the dire environmental and economic impacts of climate change, stating that thousands of Americans could die and gross domestic product could take a 10% hit by century's end. Trump, who has called climate change a "hoax," has rejected the report's conclusion that climate change could be devastating for the economy, saying, "I don't believe it." His administration has since made a series of policy and diplomatic decisions or statements that appear to run counter to all of the warnings in the report. None is designed to reduce fossil fuel emissions, as the report said is needed to combat extreme climate change. In December, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed relaxing regulations for newly built coal-fueled power plants, which, combined with another proposal to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, would overhaul the way coal-fired plants are built and regulated. The move sent a political signal that the Trump administration is intent on shoring up the coal industry and other energy interests, and environmentalists worry that the proposed rule suggests the EPA will set new standards that would weaken the requirements that the agency uses to regulate other types of pollution. At the G20 meeting in Argentina, just days after the release of that dire climate report, US diplomats insisted on noting that the United States reaffirmed its intention to withdraw from the Paris accord. When the US Geological Survey announced a major discovery of oil and natural gas underneath Texas and New Mexico in December, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called it a gift. The Interior Department then proposed to cut protections that benefited the sage grouse, a grassland bird that lives in the Great Plains and Western states, which could allow for expanded oil and drilling. The plan would remove protections on nearly 9 million acres of protected habitat. CNN's John Sutter, Julia Jones, and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report.