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The debt-ceiling deal negotiated by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy will reduce the U.S. government’s debt by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday. In a letter to Rep. McCarthy (R-CA), CBO director Phillip Schwagel said the agency projected the deal’s caps on discretionary spending in 2024 and 2025 would reduce outlays by $1.3 trillion over the next 1o years. Mandatory spending would fall by $10 billion. Revenues are projected to fall by $2 billion due to cuts to funding for enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service. Interest on the public debt would decline...

On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) responded to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the Inflation Reduction Act won’t have much of an impact on inflation this year or next year by saying that many economists say “inflation is already coming down. Gas prices are coming down. So, I believe that you will be able to feel it.” Host Fredricka Whitfield asked, “But do you worry that many Americans won’t actually feel the impact of the bill — some of the impact, for a long time? I mean, it’s called the Inflation Reduction Act. But...

The omicron variant now represents about 3 percent of domestic COVID-19 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday, showing the new variant is starting to rise in the U.S. The CDC estimated omicron was 2.9 percent of sequenced U.S. cases for the week ending Dec. 11, up from 0.4 percent one week earlier. The number is expected to rise quickly given the sharp spikes in omicron in other countries. For example, officials in Britain have estimated omicron will be the dominant variant there within days. The U.S. trajectory appears to be somewhat behind.

Since the start of the COVID pandemic I have watched almost everyone get mission critical things wrong. In some ways this is not surprising. Medical terminology is horribly imprecise, and often poorly understood. In calmer times such things are only of interest to research geeks like me. Were they talking about CVD, or CHD? However, right now, it really, really, matters. Specially, with regards to the term COVID ‘cases.’

A new study... provides an updated estimate of the likely number of alien civilizations that could exist in the Milky Way. The analysis...starts with revising the Drake equation... "The classic method for estimating the number of intelligent civilizations relies on making guesses of values relating to life," said Westby in a press release. "Our new study simplifies these assumptions using new data, giving us a solid estimate of the number of civilizations in our Galaxy." Westby and Conselice...built a key assumption in to their estimate: Life on another planet will arise in a similar way to how it did on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to incorporate macroeconomic projections into cost estimates for major legislation, a move that critics say could hide the true budgetary effects of tax cuts. The move toward "dynamic scoring" is part of a package of new rules that passed on a 234-172 party-line vote as the new Republican-controlled Congress started its work.

A high-spirited crowd numbering, by some estimates, more than 200,000 swamped the National Mall on Saturday, overwhelming the city's public transportation system as people flocked to what organizers billed as a "comedic call for calm." (snip) The turnout was estimated by organizers at more than 250,000, but the figure was not confirmed by local or federal authorities, who do not estimate crowd sizes. An aerial estimate by CBS News estimated 215,000 attended, plus or minus 10%. In a similar estimate for a rally by conservative commentator Glenn Beck in August, CBS estimated the crowd at between 78,000 and 96,000.

WASHINGTON – A new congressional report released Friday says the United States' long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama's grim budget submission last month. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama's budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That's $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration. The agency says its future-year predictions of tax revenues are more pessimistic than the administration's. That's because CBO projects slightly slower economic growth than the White House. The deficit picture has turned alarmingly worse since the recession that started at...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – Congressional Republicans on Wednesday rejected the idea that the $900-billion economic stimulus plan being pushed by the Obama White House and Senate Democrats will preserve or create more than 3 million American jobs. “The important thing to appreciate about that number is that instead of being ‘creating’ 3 to 4 million jobs, it is ‘saving or creating’ 3 to 4 million jobs,” Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) told CNSNews.com during a press briefing. “The problem with that line is that you can’t ever prove a negative. You can’t ever prove that there was a job that would...

Just three months into the fiscal year, the state's total general fund revenues are already $1.1 billion below estimates made in the recently amended budget, Controller John Chiang said today. Chiang delivered the grim news in his monthly report covering California's cash balance, receipts and disbursements in September. He urged lawmakers to prepare for more tough decisions. "Revenues more than $1 billion under estimates and recent adverse court rulings are dealing a major blow to a budget that is barely 10 weeks old," Chiang said in a statement. "While there are encouraging signs that California's economy is preparing for a...

WASHINGTON--Government health officials are urging people not to panic over estimates of 90,000 people dying from swine flu this fall. "Everything we've seen in the U.S. and everything we've seen around the world suggests we won't see that kind of number if the virus doesn't change," Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a C-SPAN interview taped Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The cost of the government setting up a "bad bank" to buy up toxic assets from struggling U.S. banks could range as high as $4 trillion, according to some experts, Sen. Charles Schumer said on Thursday. ... "I've talked to various experts. The estimates vary, from one to four," the Senate Banking Committee member said. Asked if banks need $2 trillion to $3 trillion in additional bailout funds, Schumer said: "No, not necessarily."

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

<p>REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson's double-murder trial will last five months, a judge said Wednesday, with 200 potential jurors due in court next Thursday for what promises to be a long selection process.</p> <p>Judge Alfred A. Delucchi announced those details before lawyers resumed their haggling over the admissibility of evidence from cadaver-sniffing dogs. Prosecutors maintain the dogs provide important clues to how Peterson allegedly disposed of his wife's body, while the defense argues the canines are unreliable.</p>

<p>The state controller is raising his estimate of how much California will have to borrow this summer as a stalemate over budget cuts and vehicle license fee increases drags on in the Legislature.</p> <p>Controller Steve Westly says the state will have to borrow $4 billion to $11 billion in June to keep its operations running as lawmakers try to erase a budget deficit that could reach $34.6 billion over the next 16 months.</p>

U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Decline WASHINGTON, DC, July 2, 2002 (ENS) - Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the U.S. energy sector declined by 1.1 percent in 2001, the first such decline since 1991, according to preliminary estimates released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Emissions decreased from 1,558 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCe) in 2000 to 1,540 MMTCe in 2001, reported the EIA, the independent statistical and analytic agency of the Department of Energy. Energy related CO2 emissions in the U.S. have averaged 1.2 percent annual growth since 1990. Last year's decline can be attributed in part...