Politics

Throughout the campaign President Trump swore off cuts to Social Security and Medicare, promises which could ultimately result in the first splintering between the White House and Congressional Republicans who maintain that the federal budget can't be balanced without meaningful entitlement reform.  Trump is set to present the first outline of his budget when he addresses a joint session of Congress for the first time on February 28th.

In the latest surprise to come from the Trump administration, the NYT reports that in the Trump administration is preparing a set of executive orders aimed at isolating the US and which would allow the United States to "drastically reduce" its role and involvement in the United Nations and other international organizations, "as well as begin a process to review and potentially abrogate certain forms of multilateral treaties, officials said." The order calls for then enacting “at least a 40% overall decrease” in remaining United States funding toward international organizations.

Trump is planning to sign executive orders blocking visas for citizens of seven countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, according to congressional aides and immigration experts. He is also expected to temporarily ban refugees entering the US for several months, except in cases of religious minorities escaping persecution, until stricter vetting is in place, the sources told Reuters. The move could just be the beginning of further limits some reports have indicated.

Submitted by Gregory Brew via OilPrice.com,

Despite some suggestions that oil prices will level off at around $60 in 2017, since the initial surge of the OPEC production deal prices have barely nudged above $53. Over the long-term, outlooks are more bearish than bullish, and a major reason for that is the strong likelihood of increased production in three places: Libya, Nigeria and Iran.

Earlier today, the New York Times published a 3-page draft of an executive order, allegedly penned by the Trump administration, entitled "Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants."  According to the NYT, which "obtained" the document from an anonymous source, the executive order seeks to, among other things, reopen overseas CIA "black site" prisons that Obama ordered closed in 2009.