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.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who serves as the House Armed Service Committee chairman, told a local radio station that he expects that Trump will reverse the Biden administration’s decision shortly after taking office.

Rogers also thinks that construction on a Huntsville facility will begin next year.

“I’ve told y’all since Biden made that crooked decision, it wasn’t going to work,” Rogers told Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5 this week. “As you know, on the Armed Services Committee, I put a hold on any money being spent in Colorado Springs after President Biden came in and stole that mission away. And I told everybody then that Colorado Springs will not be the future capital or location of Space Command. It will be Huntsville, Alabama, who won at fair and square. And President Trump said in the campaign that he was going to reverse that decision if elected. But I knew he would because if you remember, not only did Alabama win two nationwide competitions, but President Trump’s secretary of the Air Force recommended Huntsville, President Biden’s Secretary of the Air Force recommended Huntsville, and then Biden took it away for political reasons.”

Huntsville, also known as Rocket City, is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center; Colorado Springs is home to over 45,000 active duty U.S. soldiers. The U.S. Air Force Academy is a few miles north of Colorado Springs.

Rogers also said that he does not expect House Democrats to oppose the decision.

“Keep in mind, you know, in the House Armed Services Committee, the Democrats weren’t pushing back against Trump putting it there because it won,” Rogers told 1819 News. “You’ll remember, (Democratic Alabama Congressman) Terri Sewell was very active on our committee. (Ranking Democratic Congressman) Adam Smith remained silent, which tells you everything you needed to know on the issue. I have every confidence that if, for some reason, we didn’t take control of the House, Adam Smith and the Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee would do nothing to try to interfere with the U.S.-based command being constructed in Huntsville.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis pushed back on the notion in a post to X.

“Colorado is the rightful home for Space Command, no matter who occupies the White House. Colorado’s space and military assets are critical to our national security,” the governor said. “Colorado is the premier location for our service members and their families to train, live, work, and retire. We will fiercely defend and have bipartisan support for Colorado’s military community.”

“There’s some bad spots in Pennsylvania where some serious things have been caught or are in the process of being caught,” he said to the crowd gathered at his infamous Palm Beach, Fla., private club, on Tuesday morning.

The comment comes amid a growing list of early election missteps, including batches of fraudulent voter registrations intercepted in Lancaster County; a bomb threat at the Republican Campaign Committee headquarters in Montgomery County; and election workers disbanding a line of voters returning ballots in-person in Delaware County.

Questions have also risen after more batches of voter registration forms were dropped off this week in York County, which sits just across the Susquehanna River from Lancaster County.

In a statement to multiple media outlets, including CBS 21, York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler confirmed a “large delivery of thousands of election-related materials from a third-party organization” had been received. Completed registration forms and mail-in ballot applications were contained within.

“As with all submissions, our staff follows a process for ensuring all voter registrations and mail-in ballot requests are legal,” she said. “That process is currently underway. If suspected fraud is identified, we will alert the District Attorney’s Office, which will then conduct an investigation. We will have no further comment until our internal review has been completed.”

The investigation into 2,500 suspected fraudulent ballots in nearby Lancaster County remains ongoing.

The Department of State’s daily report shows 1.4 million mail-in ballots have been received so far, including 849,849 from registered Democrats; 468,067 from Republicans; and 155,909 from unaffiliated voters.

The total number of ballots requested will likely still rise as Tuesday is the deadline for voters to ask for one. Overall, more than 9 million residents are registered to vote in the state.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be taking actions to regulate gasoline on two fronts — through the legislature, and CARB, which consists of 14 voting members — 12 of whom are appointed by the governor without State Senate confirmation.

“In September of last year, CARB estimated that the change could lift gasoline prices 47 cents a gallon, or $6.4 billion a year,” reported the Los Angeles Times. “Other analysts put the price even higher — 65 cents a gallon, or $8.8 [billion] a year.”

It’s unclear how much the new refinery regulations — which would give the state power to tell refineries when they’re allowed to shut down for maintenance and repairs, and determine how much inventory of gasoline to maintain on hand in case refineries have to be shut down — would cost. However, a broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats, neighboring governors, and even labor unions is opposing the measure, which does seem ready to pass.

The small group of labor organizations that came out against the bill — employed in energy trades — shared a number of safety and even electoral concerns.

“This issue is readily being used against our candidate in those states and beyond,” wrote the coalition regarding the potential direct implications for the swing states of Arizona and Nevada that rely on California for gasoline, and the use of California’s climate positions as a tool to attack Democrats nationally more broadly. “If we cannot be heard and believed on issues that could jeopardize the lives of our members, something is very wrong in CA. Every member who votes for this bill should be prepared to answer if something goes wrong”

Assemblymember Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, said that he believes most legislators actually no longer support the bill but feel strong-armed by the governor.

“The legislature honestly needs to stand up for itself and tell [Newsom] no. I’m guessing the vast majority of legislators want this bill to die,” said Patterson on X. “We shouldn’t do it just because of the Governor’s strange obsession with this weird policy to give bureaucrats power over gasoline production.”

CARB will be voting on the new amendments to the state’s low carbon fuel standard on November 8, just days after the presidential election, on whether or not to adopt new, stricter standards that will make it harder to generate LCFS credits, and require more LCFS credits to be purchased.

As can be seen in CARB data, the LCFS has been so successful that as of April 2024, the most recent data point, the reduction in carbon intensity of the state’s fuel system is already past the goal for 2026. While the widespread availability of LCFS credits has reduced emissions, the rapid scaling of the desired LCFS credit-producing technologies has also reduced the value of individual credits.

Should the new, more strict LCFS requirements be adopted, fewer credits would qualify, and the cost of credits would go up, but much of the billions of dollars invested in existing infrastructure to generate LCFS credits could turn worthless overnight.

California’s gas taxes are already the highest in the nation, with federal, state, and local taxes and fees adding approximately $1.62 per gallon, which is significantly more than the difference between California and national gas prices. If the LCFS is approved, California gasoline could cost approximately $2.09 to $2.27 per gallon more than the national average, a move that could drive more consumers to electric cars, or out of the state entirely.

The analysis comes after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Director Phillip Swagel of the CBO questioning the budgetary impact of this new demonstration program.

A release from Swagel’s department said the increase in federal spending would range from $10 billion to $20 billion in 2025 compared to earlier projections.

“As predicted, the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act not only quelled investment for new cures, but caused Medicare prescription drug plan premiums to skyrocket, and Democrats are scrambling to cover it up before the election,” Arrington said in a press release. “In July, the Biden-Harris CMS scrambled to create a new federal program that will send billions of tax dollars to large health insurance companies to cover up a massive flaw in their so-called Inflation Reduction Act.”

The new average plan bid for a standard Part D coverage increases by 179% for 2025 partly due to an underestimation of federal attributions to the Part D changes, according to the analysis.

Arrington continued, “Today, CBO confirmed that the administration’s election year Hail Mary will cost taxpayers an astounding $7 billion next year alone, and $21 billion over the planned three-year demo, adding to the more than $2 trillion in Biden-Harris executive spending.”

These plans typically expect monthly reinsurance, which means Medicare payments cover part of the costs of prescription drugs when the catastrophic threshold is reached.

Almost 60% of Part D enrollees are through Medicare Advantage plans and receive coverage through MA-PD plans. The rest are covered through what’s known as stand-alone prescription drug plans.

CBO expects the following changes for prescription drug plans in 2025:

• A $15 reduction for monthly PDPs. This would cost a total of $2.9 billion in federal funding.
• Increases in PDPs will be capped at $35 in 2024 and 2025, totaling $1.8 billion in federal funding.
• Risk corridor subsidies will increase for PDPs that have more than 2.5% of bids in 2025, resulting in $250 million of federal funding.

The budget office said the changes to temporary subsidies, combined with risk corridors, will increase federal spending by $5 billion in 2025, with $2 billion in net spending interest until 2034.

Policies included in the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 have changed the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that was originally estimated to be $30 million over 10 years beginning in 2025.

This resulted in the sponsors of the Medicare prescription drug plan increasing plan bids and base beneficiary premiums for 2025 while reducing the number of plans that would be available to seniors in 2025.

“When Democrats unilaterally enacted major changes to Medicare two years ago, they set seniors up for new expenses and fewer options,” Grassley said in a release. “This nonpartisan CBO analysis confirms CMS’s cost-shifting plan is a dishonest election year gimmick to cover up those consequences.”

CMS is an acronym for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The program would send federal money to large health insurance companies while falsely lowering the cost for seniors Part D premiums and potentially costing $7 billion in 2025, according to the analysis.

Grassley continued, “Rather than coming to the table and legitimately addressing its partisan mistakes, the Biden-Harris administration threw taxpayer dollars at the problems it created, putting Americans on the hook for tens of billions more dollars.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a release, “Today’s final guidance for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program builds off the success of the first 10 negotiated drug prices and continues the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to provide millions of people with Medicare affordable access to innovative therapies.”

This is a contradiction from the reported number taxpayers will pay that was stated in the analysis.

Brooks-LaSure continued, “While saving Medicare and taxpayers billions of dollars, the negotiated prices will also provide people with Medicare a better deal on some of Medicare’s costliest prescription drugs, promoting necessary competition in the market, and ensuring Medicare is strong today and into the future.”

The temporary subsidies, announced in July, affect both those enrolled and the federal payments to Plan D premiums in 2025, 2026 and 2027, though certain policies have yet to be announced for 2026-27, meaning no budgetary estimation for both years.

The budget office said it expects $100 million in 2025 from each organization that controls and collects payments from the government on behalf of Part D plans.

Continuing that most of that would have been paid for by enrollees in the Part D program through premiums, “For that reason, the effect of CMS’s subsidies on plans’ revenues is much smaller than the federal cost. By providing larger federal subsidies to prescription drug plans, the federal payments to Part D plans effectively cover costs that would have been borne by Part D enrollees.”