The federal deficit for fiscal 2019 reached close to $1 trillion ($984 billion) for the first time since 2012, according to final Treasury Department figures released Friday.  This is more than $200 billion, or 20 percent, higher than last year.

The deficit has only surpassed $1 trillion four times in the nation’s history, recently  during the four-year stretch following the 2008 global financial crisis. Treasury forecasts that the 2020 deficit wIll amount to $1.045 trillion. 

While the main drivers of the deficit are mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the  GOP tax law added substantially to the deficit by scaling back revenues, to the benefit of the rich.

The  nation’s total debt now stands above $22 trillion, rising as far into the future as anyone can see.  As a result, interest costs are the fastest growing program in the federal budget, reaching  $376 billion, larger than the combined cost of veterans benefits and services and education, and more than half as much as the cost of defense.

My comment:  During a period with a booming economy one expects the deficit to decline and to leave room for the government to take expansionary measures in a future recession.  This frantic spending is irresponsible, reckless and unsustainable . What  has this to do with Epicureanism?  When the resulting crash comes, probably during the next Administration, it will cause havoc and hardship, maybe worse that the recession of 2008.  We deserve better financial management and the peace of mind of knowing that we can go about our lawful business without mass bankruptcies, upset trade, homelessness and other hallmarks of financial catastrophe.

The five biggest oil and gas companies – BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total – and their industry groups have spent at least €251m (£217m) lobbying the EU over climate policies since 2010. Researchers say the figure represents the tip of the iceberg, as in some years companies made no declarations of spending in the voluntary EU transparency register. Pascoe Sabido, researcher at Corporate Europe Observatory, said the oil and gas lobby had “delayed, weakened and sabotaged EU action on the climate emergency, thanks to their hefty lobby spending. A cool quarter of a billion over the last decade buys a lot of access and influence in Brussels.” ( Guardian 24Oct 2019)

Meanwhile BP, for instance, has the gall to spend a fortune on advertising the power it produces from wind farms,  as if whole countries are being powered by wind.  We are sadly manipulated and misled.  Wind represents a minor fraction of the power produced by the use of oil.  We cannot ban lobbying; that would be undemocratic.  But there should be a ceiling on what is spent on lobbying and careful oversight on what actually constitutes the lobbying process.  What does it constitute?

Well, for starters:  I have lobbied Congress, or a bit of it.  It cost me two dollars, one dollar for a bus trip to the Hill, and one dollar for the bus trip back. The lobbying was thus cheap, and not a dollar changed hands in the process (and you guess it – it was also ineffective!).  So how did these corporations manage to spend £217 million?  Are you thinking what I’m thinking?