The Congressional Budget Office reported $710 billion in borrowing, including $85 billion in the month of December, according to the latest Monthly Budget Review.

Federal agencies, including the CBO, expect deficit spending to continue despite promises from Trump and others to cut the federal budget.

Trump promised to cut “hundreds of billions” in federal spending in 2025 through the reconciliation process, a parliamentary procedure that allows Congress to expedite the passage of some federal budget legislation.

Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, run by Tesla boss Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, also promised to cut the federal government down to size. Earlier this week, Musk estimated DOGE could trim $1 trillion from the federal budget, a sizable amount considering discretionary spending totaled $1.7 trillion in 2023. Generally, Congress spends about half of its discretionary budget on the U.S. Department of Defense.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said U.S. borrowing should be a focus as Trump takes office.

“As we start the new year ushering in a new administration and a new Congress, we must not lose sight of the fiscal challenges ahead,” she said. “Our unsustainable debt isn’t something we can just shy away from, as 2025 is packed full of fiscal deadlines. So far we’ve heard much about how lawmakers plan to spend more and tax less; we’ve heard much less about the opposite.”

MacGuineas suggested no new borrowing and guaranteeing all tax cuts and spending increases are fully offset. That’s a daunting challenge for lawmakers as they look to extend the tax provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which the CBO estimated will cost about $4 trillion over the next decade.

Congress has run a deficit every year since 2001. In the past 50 years, the federal government has ended with a fiscal year-end budget surplus four times, most recently in 2001.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, as of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, and at least five people have died. There have been nearly 13,926 total emergency responses, 92 wildfires and 29,053 acres burned, per the department.

Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard has been deployed to assist the hundreds of firefighters – including many from other states – fighting the fires.

President Joe Biden has approved further federal assistance for Los Angeles County as the fires continue to raze homes, schools, businesses and other structures, in addition to scorching vegetation and wildlife in their wake.

“The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Los Angeles County,” said a Wednesday statement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.”

The White House announced late Wednesday that Biden will not be making a scheduled trip to Italy this week so he can monitor the raging wildfires in Southern California.

Speaking from the White House on Thursday afternoon during a briefing on the fires, Biden said federal funding will cover debris removal, setting up temporary shelters, and paying first responders.

“I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense,” Biden said in noting he’s surging federal resources into Southern California, including 400 federal firefighters, 30 federal firefighting aircraft and other assets.

The president provided some moral support as well for those enduring the fires that have turned portions of Southern California into a hellscape.

“We are with you,” Biden said. “We’re not going anywhere. To the firefighters and first responders, you are heroes.”

There was at least a brief respite on Thursday morning as the Santa Ana winds lessened somewhat, but forecasters warned that critical fire weather conditions would continue over the next several days.

While winds aren’t expected to reach the extremes of Tuesday night – gusts of up to 100 mph were recorded – potentially damaging winds remain in the forecast into the next week.

“High winds and low relative humidity will continue to support critical fire weather conditions in southern California through Friday,” the National Weather Service said on its website as of Thursday afternoon. “Red Flag Warnings remain in effect.”

As Biden prepares for the end of his term, Americans’ assessment of his performance shows that just 39% approve of the job he is doing as president, while only 19% expressed satisfaction with the country’s trajectory, according to Gallup’s latest survey.

Since “at least 2010, the nation has been in a public opinion rut,” Gallup said. “Presidential job approval has rarely exceeded 50%, and congressional job approval hasn’t exceeded 36%.”

Biden’s approval rating fluctuated in his early days in office, with slightly positive scores above 50%. However, those swiftly declined due to various economic challenges and policy issues, including his administration’s failure to address rapid rises in inflation, as well as his failed withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Biden’s approval ratings settled in the high 30s to low 40s leading up to the 2024 presidential election.

According to the poll, Congress’s job approval rating was just 17% in December, remaining under 20% for most of 2024.

The Gallup poll also stated that only 20% of Americans were currently satisfied with the nation’s course, a figure that stayed relatively unchanged in recent surveys.

Approval has not been above the 50% mark since December 2003, two years into the George W. Bush presidency.

“[E]xcept for a brief period before the start of the pandemic in 2020, less than 40% have been satisfied with the direction of the country,” Gallup noted.

It reached its lowest point in October 2008, with only 7% approving of the country’s direction after the economic meltdown that fueled the so-called Great Recession and all but secured the election of Barack Obama over GOP rival John McCain.

Obama’s lowest point—11% in September 2011—equalled that of his successor, Donald Trump, following the U.S. Capitol uprising in January 2021. However, the public’s satisfaction with the direction of the country then was likely impacted somewhat by Biden’s inauguration, as well.

By contrast, the highest number recorded during Obama’s presidency, 37%, came in November 2016, the month that Trump was elected.

The number rose to 45% in February 2020, which also marked the conclusion of congressional Democrats’ first impeachment attempt against Trump. Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted on Feb. 5 of that year to acquit Trump of pressuring new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Biden family’s corruption involving the Burisma energy company.

Roughly a month later, the first cases of COVID-19 reached the U.S. and Europe, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic emergency and public satisfaction to once again plummet.

As the nation prepares for a leadership transition when Trump is sworn in again on Jan. 20—this time as the 47th president of the United States—these steady yet subdued ratings offered insight into the challenges faced by the outgoing administration and underscored the public’s cautious outlook on the future.

The recent Gallup poll was conducted from Dec. 2 to Dec. 18. Biden’s final job approval reading is expected in January.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

“For select areas of interest, Survey of Construction (SOC) data collected by field representatives have been replaced with estimates obtained from satellite imagery to demonstrate the efficacy of this data collection method,” Census said in a Dec. 19 release.

The method entails running satellite images through “convolutional neural networks,” or CNNs, to identify construction.

The programs will be able to differentiate excavation, foundation, framing, unfinished roof, and finished roofs, per the Census. It is expected to be able to distinguish between single-family detached, single-family attached, multi-family, and non-residential.

This data will be combined with conventional data Census received from local government offices to give a clearer picture of home construction data moving forward.

The bureau is only using the experimental method in District 7, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Data from the district shows 14,100 new housing starts in November.

“This product demonstrates a new computer-vision based approach to monthly economic measurement that can improve geographic granularity and accuracy while also reducing respondent burden,” the release said.

Monday’s announcement is on top of a $7.8 billion plan announced last year and more than $6 billion already spent in Ohio through the end of 2022.

State officials said the new investment is expected to create hundreds of new, high-paying jobs by the end of 2030 and increase Ohio’s role as a major technology hub.

“As reliance on digital services continues to grow, so does the importance of data centers; they are critical to today’s modern economy,” said Gov. Mike DeWine. Amazon Web Service’s “substantial investment in Ohio will help keep our state at the forefront of the global technology.”

The $10 billion investment ranks only behind Intel’s $20 billion project in central Ohio, announced nearly three years ago. AmazonWeb Service has not finalized locations for its new centers, and plans are contingent upon long-term energy service agreements.

“Today, we reaffirm our long-term commitment to Ohio with plans to invest an additional $10 billion to expand our data center infrastructure in greater Ohio to drive innovation in AI for customers,” said Roger Wehner, vice president of economic development at Amazon Web Services. “Since 2015, AWS has invested more than $10.3 billion in the state and currently supports more than 4,760 jobs annually. This expanded investment is expected to create new, well-paying jobs, boost Ohio’s GDP, and further cement our partnership with the state. We are also proud to continue expanding the reach of workforce development and educational programs that equip Ohio’s next generation of tech talent through strong public and private partnerships.”​

The planned new data centers are expected to contain computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other forms of technology infrastructure used to power cloud computing, including artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“These are significant investments from AWS that support Ohio’s growing reputation as the tech hub of the Midwest,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. “Artificial intelligence and data centers are crucial to America’s economic superiority because they drive innovation, support high-tech industries, enhance productivity across sectors, and enable the analysis and management of vast data essential for global competitiveness.”

“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump told reporters during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.

The issue has been thrust to the forefront in part by the incoming Trump administration’s emphasis on government efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

But the issue has also gained national attention because Biden administration officials like outgoing Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley negotiated a deal with union leaders to entrench the policies, keeping telework in place for his 42,000 employees until 2029.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, threatened legal action against the incoming Trump administration if the president-elect tries to upend previously bargained union deals that let federal employees work from home.

“Collective bargaining agreements entered into by the federal government are binding and enforceable under the law,” Kelley said. “We trust the incoming administration will abide by their obligations to honor lawful union contracts. If they fail to do so, we will be prepared to enforce our rights.”

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, there are nearly 3 million federal employees.

Kelley argued that the extent to which federal employees work from home has been exaggerated.

“Rumors of widespread federal telework and remote work are simply untrue,” Kelley said. “More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all because of the nature of their jobs, only ten percent of federal workers are remote, and those who have a hybrid arrangement spend over sixty percent of working hours in the office.”

Critics have shot back saying that effectively means that 40% of federal work hours are remote. If you remove certain workers like postal workers and maintenance workers from the equation, the percentage of federal remote work is much higher.

In particular, workers in the federal agencies in and around Washington, D.C. have largely grown accustomed to at least partially working remote.

Kelley argued the policies help the government recruit and keep “top talent.”

“Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency, maintain continuity of operations, and increase disaster preparedness,” Kelley said in a statement Monday. “These policies also assist agencies across the government, including the Social Security Administration, in recruiting and retaining top talent.

The personal-finance website WalletHub on Friday released its new Credit Card Debt Study, which found that consumers added $21 billion in debt during the third quarter of 2024.

Early results for the fourth quarter of the year show preliminary data for October at a new record high for credit card debt in the month, in absolute terms.

WalletHub editor John Kiernan wrote, “Even though that third-quarter increase was 31% smaller than last year’s and total debt is just 3% above where it was last year after adjusting for inflation, we are still in fairly dangerous territory,” said Kiernan.

WalletHub writer & analyst Chip Lupo responded via email to follow up questions from The Center Square.

Those early Q4 results showing record high credit card debt for October are alarming-do we know what’s driving that at all?

“The record-high credit card debt in October 2024 reflects a 3% year-over-year increase after inflation adjustments, driven by rising interest rates, holiday spending and lingering economic pressures. While Q3 debt growth slowed compared to 2023, total debt remains high at $1.29 trillion, signaling potential challenges ahead for consumers,” said Lupo.

Has WalletHub done any analysis of how much credit card debt the average American puts on during the holidays?

“While we didn’t analyze this specifically, WalletHub found that holiday budgets this year range from just over $200 to more than $4,000, depending on factors such as income, existing debt, and cost of living,” said Lupo.

Any advice on balance transferring to avoid interest?

“Transferring your credit card balance to a low or 0% APR card can be a smart way to save money and pay down debt faster. When considering a balance transfer, focus on cards offering 0% introductory APRs with promotional periods up to 21 months. Such offers significantly reduce interest payments, provided you can pay off the transferred balance before the regular APR kicks in. Remember, most cards charge a balance transfer fee of about 3%, though some will waive this fee entirely. Calculating these costs upfront is crucial to ensure the move saves money,” said Lupo.

With holiday spending in full swing, many Americans are expected to add to credit card debt before the end of the year.

“Nearly half of Americans still have debt from the holidays from last year,” said Lupo. “The fact that people are still paying off debt from last holiday season makes you wonder if they are going to fall into that trap again or are they cutting back because of last year’s debt?”

Sixty-eight percent of WalletHub respondents said Santa will be less generous this year because of inflation. And about a third said they’ll spend less on holiday shopping this year compared with 2023.

In a letter addressed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services, Johnson demanded that the agencies preserve all records referring to the development, safety, and side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, and to produce the records without redactions by Dec. 3.

“While your agencies have largely ignored or failed to fully cooperate with my oversight efforts, I can assure you that your obstruction will soon come to an end,” Johnson wrote Tuesday. “Your agencies’ refusal to provide complete and unredacted responses and documents to my numerous oversight letters on the development and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines has hindered Congressional oversight and has jeopardized the public’s health.”

Johnson has requested full versions of three sections within a FOIA from May 2021, which the CDC so heavily redacted that no scientific data was revealed.

One of the sections revealed that then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky received Pfizer data regarding the number of myocarditis cases associated with the vaccine, though the 14-page document is completely redacted except for the cover page.

Other data requested in full by Johnson consists of emails within the CDC, showing that officials initially planned to send out a Health Alert Network message to the public about the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis associated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Johnson reiterated his request that the CDC release all communications and briefings regarding the decision not to issue the HAN, which he originally asked for in January.

He also demanded to see the completely redacted 17 pages of apparent COVID-19 talking points that the Biden White House sent out to the America’s top public health officials.

“What is clear from these excessive redactions, however, is a concerted effort to obscure Congress’ and the public’s understanding of your agencies’ detection of and response to COVID-19 vaccine adverse events such as myocarditis and pericarditis,” Johnson concluded. “Ultimately, despite your agencies’ awareness of the risks associated with the COVID-19 vaccines, the main talking point from these and other public health officials was uniform and entirely deceptive: the vaccines are safe and effective.”

Johnson, ranking member of the committee for a short time longer until the majority flips from Democrats to Republicans with seating of the 119th Congress, has sent more than 60 public letters to federal agencies regarding the origins and treatment of the COVID-19 virus.

His demands come as the GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report showing the Biden administration spent $900 million promoting faulty health messaging around the COVID-19 virus and vaccines.

According to reports, America is facing an energy crisis, with demand for energy soaring due to the proliferation of AI and hyperscale data centers – which can use as much energy as almost 40,000 homes – the boom in advanced manufacturing, and the movement toward electrification.

Written by economist Ike Brannon, a senior fellow at the foundation, and economist Sam Wolf, the report explains partly why so many utilities and regional transmission organizations are having to get creative to meet demand.

“During the previous two decades, power demand in the United States scarcely grew as the U.S. shifted from a manufacturing to a services economy,” the authors wrote.

However, the sharp increase in demand is eating up the spare capacity in the U.S. power grid, which helps protect against brownouts and blackouts in the case of extreme weather and temporary outages by power plants. That increase contributed to a huge spike in capacity market prices at the most recent auction held by the Mid-Atlantic regional transmission organization PJM.

Prices jumped from $29 to $270 per megawatt-day “across the PJM region” and from $29 to $444 in parts of Virginia, home to more than half of the nation’s data centers, according to the study.

Aaron Ruby, a spokesperson for Dominion Energy, a major East Coast utility company and the primary utility in Virginia, vehemently disagreed with the study’s claim that prices could rise to 70% in the next decade, saying the number was “way off” for the commonwealth.

“We just released a 15-year plan forecasting residential electric bills through 2039, and they’re only projected to grow by about 2.5% a year, which is lower than normal inflation,” Ruby wrote in an email to The Center Square. “Our residential rates are among the most affordable in the country. They’re 14% below the national average.”

But the surge in power demand from data centers is projected to be so great the study’s authors argue the center cannot hold (while acknowledging that rate setting is “inherently political” and “difficult to forecast” and that it’s “unclear who will bear the cost of these price increases”).

“In Virginia, the high regulation of price and capacity has kept the increased demand from data centers from impacting prices paid by ordinary consumers, but such insulation cannot hold much longer without risking service interruptions or brownouts,” the report reads. “As data center growth expands, price increases may need to flow through to consumers more rapidly.”

In Maryland, electricity bills “are projected to increase by somewhere between two to 24% in 2025, depending on the region,” the authors added.

Other states like Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Illinois and Arizona may come to resemble Virginia in the years ahead, according to the study.

The report’s authors suggest that policymakers craft and implement policy that will make data centers part of the solution to the disproportionate demand they place on the grid, including charging them more for the energy they use.

“To ease the burden on households and small businesses, AI companies should be required to bear the additional costs of the energy they consume. This could include charging data centers higher fees to reflect their disproportionate impact on electricity markets,” the report reads.

Brannon and Wolf also recommend that states and local governments stop subsidizing data center construction, arguing that the economic benefits aren’t worth the cost to taxpayers and that utility providers start including minimum take clauses in their contracts with data centers.

“A minimum take clause guarantees a minimum payment from a utility user—such as a data center—regardless of how much energy it purchases, which provides the utility with a modicum of revenue certainty,” the authors wrote.

The study concludes with several other recommendations, saying that “paying for grid modernization… can be accommodated within existing rate structures, but only if the data centers bear their proportionate share of these costs.”

“The increase contributes to inflation, the high cost of living in California, and has a disproportionate and adverse impact on lower income Californians,” wrote Professor Michael A. Mische. “To compensate for the increases, the average Californian driving an internal combustion vehicle will have to earn an additional $600.00 to $1,000.00 a year in pre-tax income in order to “breakeven” with 2024 prices, depending on the grade of gas they purchase.”

Days after the November election, the California Air Resources Board — a regulatory commission almost entirely appointed by the governor — passed new updates to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, requiring producers of “dirty” transportation fuel to purchase more credits from producers of “clean” transportation fuel. The new LCFS will provide an estimated $105 billion in EV charging credits and $8 billion of hydrogen credits largely paid for by fees on gasoline and diesel, which the state estimated would be passed on to drivers and consumers.

Mische first estimated that the state’s newly passed carbon credit requirement will increase retail prices for regular grade gasoline in 2025 somewhere between 40 and 65 cents per gallon — similar to that estimated by the University of Pennsylvania Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

He then estimated that the governor’s new refinery regulations he passed during a special legislative session last month would increase prices between 5 and 27 cents per gallon, and that the shutdown of the Phillips 66 refinery announced after the new refinery regulations would add another 8 to 14 cents per gallon.

Because California gas taxes rise with the state’s price index, Mische estimates the gas tax will go up between one to two cents per gallon in 2025.

Combined, these changes add up to an increase of 55 to 90 cents per gallon of regular-grade gasoline in 2025, and 95 cents to $1.15 for premium-grade gasoline.

Republicans pointed out that the governor has now moved away from Sacramento, the state’s capital, and will now be chauffeured to work in a gasoline car.

“Newsom is completely out of touch, recently purchasing a $9.1 million mansion in Kentfield, a wealthy town that’s 90 miles away from his job in Sacramento,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, R-San Diego, in a statement. “While regular Californians face tough choices between putting food on the table or gas in their cars, Newsom will be chauffeured to work from his luxury home in a taxpayer-funded car, running on taxpayer-funded gas, on the rare occasions he decides to show up.”