Good news for the majority of Americans

I have some good news or some bad news for you.  It all depends on your political disposition.

If you are in favor of severe austerity measures to shrink the evil national budget deficit or if you believe that the Environmental Protection Agency has overused its powers to control greenhouse gasses, this is a doubly bad news day for you.

The Congressional Budget Office says that the federal budget deficit last month shrank by $25 billion compared to January of 2012.  The reason was not cutting government spending but a 15% increase in revenue from a little higher income tax on the wealthy and expiration of the payroll tax holiday.  Plus there are new restrictions on tax deductions this year.  We still will have a sizeable budget deficit in 2013 but it will be a lot lower than it has been in many years.

A new Duke University survey is out showing that 64% of the public support government (i.e. the EPA) “regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories and cars and requiring utilities to generate more power from ‘clean’ low-carbon sources.” However this poll has some bad news for proponents of a carbon tax to reduce carbon emissions…the public doesn’t like the idea.

So if you aren’t a climate denier or austerity proponent, you can go into the weekend smiling.