News Story of the Day: What happened to fiscal conservatism in the Republican Party? It’s non-existent.
According to the Treasury Department, the U.S. budget deficit increased 21 percent in the first 10 months of the budget year to $684 billion. The federal deficit is on track for the biggest gap in six years.
In July, Washington recorded a $76.9 billion deficit in July, which came after the Trump administration revised its deficit estimates to $1 trillion next year.
As revenues grew only one percent this year, spending advanced 4.4%.
It’s time to make budget deficits great again!
Chart of the Day: so, with China entrenched in a trade war with the U.S. and the yuan cratering to a 13-month low, the key question is: how will Tiffany’s cope? Here is what you can expect with Tiffany’s performance in the next little while (courtesy of CNBC):
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Illustration of the Day: The neoconservatives are a pathetic bunch, but the left has allied itself with the group because they both hate President Donald Trump. Why? He’s enacting a lot of their pro-war policies.
Quote of the Day: Winston Churchill was a warmonger statist, but he was right about several things, including socialism, which he described as this:
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Tweet of the Day: Let’s be honest: modern art is a joke. Case in point:
So I’m at a modern art museum right now and it’s the biggest joke if i ever saw one. pic.twitter.com/qURrATBFuA
— hannah 💐☕️ (@hanmariams) August 10, 2018
Video of the Day: Do you remember that time when Russian President Vladimir Putin completely annihilated a BBC reporter? If you don’t t, then here is a clip. The journalist represents everything wrong with the state of the media. Putin is a strongman statist, but he gets ir right on U.S. foreign policy.
Using current law CBO projects that real discretionary spending will decline over the 2019-2028 period. A more realistic assumption is that real discretionary spending will remain the same over the 2019-2028 period. To estimate what would happen if discretionary spending were to only increase with inflation, the calculation assumes that discretionary funding related to federal personnel would be inflated using the employment cost index, and the rest of discretionary spending would be inflated using the GDP price deflator. This adjustment would add approximately $2 trillion to the deficit over the 2019-2028 period.
Additionally, the current tax law calls for expiration of the personal tax cut in 2025, while business tax cuts are permanent. This was done to hold down the deficit in the out years so as to comply with budget reconciliation rules. There does not seem to be much opposition to extending the personal tax cut, so any realistic deficit projection should include an assumption that the expiration will not occur. Making the personal tax cut permanent would add $650 billion to the cumulative deficit, according to CBO.
There are additional adjustments that should probably be made. For example, there is a five-year terminus to the expensing provision in the tax law. This is likely to be permanent. There is the assumption that postponed healthcare-related taxes will be reinstated, even though they will also probably be made permanent. There were about 30 tax provisions that expired at the end of 2017 and were extended by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. A realistic assumption is that these will not be allowed to expire.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4163940