Grounded:As many as 22 airlines around the world have grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that killed 157 people. At least 114 of the roughly 350 Max 8s in service have been pulled.

  The FAA has not called for American companies to ground their Max 8s, although passengers are expressing concern about their safety. At least 17 airlines are still flying the Max 8, including Southwest, American, and Air Canada.

  Boeing’s stock closed down 5 percent yesterday on fears that the company has a serious problem with what has become the fastest selling plane in its history. The fuel-efficient Max 8 has become one of the work horses of the airline industry. The jets make about 8500 flights a week.

 What the second Max crash since October will do to sales is too early to say. Boeing was expected to deliver about 900 planes this year.

  The flight recorders from Ethiopian Flight 302 have been recovered but the cause of the accident will take some time to determine. The automatic flight software is suspected as a possible factor.

Budget Buster:President Trump yesterday sent Congress a proposed $4.75 trillion budget, the biggest in US history. It calls for increased military spending and sharp cuts to domestic education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year.

  The military budget would increase five percent — more that the Pentagon asked for — as well as providing $8.6 billion for Trump’s southern border wall. It would also slash $1.9 trillion from Medicaid and Medicare, the federal health care programs for the elderly and the poor.

  “In a time of $1 trillion deficits, we can no longer afford some of these activities,” acting White House Budget Director Russell Vought told “Morning Edition.”

 The President’s budget calls for a 23 percent cut at the State Department, a 15 percent cut for the USDA, and a 31 percent cut in the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency. The budget for Homeland Security would increase by 7.4 percent.

  So, while proposing the biggest budget in history that would plunge the country further into debt, the White House announcement heralded that, “President Trump’s 2020 Budget Calls for $2.7T in Spending Cuts, Promises to Erase Deficit in 15 Years.”

  It’s true that the bill calls for spending cuts in some areas. What they don’t say is that it calls for a net increase. And they don’t say how they would erase the deficit in 15 years, when we believe we can presume Donald Trump will no longer be President.

  Going over Trump’s record just over two years into his presidency, the major issues on which he campaigned have not only failed to come to fruition, but two have grown worse. Congress has not approved his border wall, the federal deficit is worse, and so is the trade imbalance with foreign countries.

  The President’s budget, as it is with any administration, is just a wish list and rarely survives the legislative meatgrinder. With a Democrat-controlled House, Trump has little chance of getting what he wants, but you know what he’s thinking.

Majority Report:Even with legal nooses tightening around President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told The Washington Post that it’s not worth the trouble of impeaching him. “I’m not for impeachment,” Pelosi said.

  She said, “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.”

Sexual Politics:New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a prime mover in forcing out her Democratic colleague Al Franken after he was accused of groping women, is scrambling to handle a harassment claim within her own office. A female staff member recently resigned claiming Gillibrand’s office mishandled her claim against a fellow staff member. The man in question was retained but fired last week after Politico broke the story of the dustup.

  There was a similar case in which Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was accused of failing to handle a sexual harassment claim in his 2016 campaign staff. So what’s happening is that not only are the perpetrators under the gun, so are the politicians who employ them.

The News Roundup:The New York attorney general’s office has issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records relating to four major Trump Organization projects and a failed effort to buy the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in 2014. — Inspectors at the Port of Newark last month discovered a shipping container that was listed as being loaded with dried fruit, but also held 3200 pounds of cocaine worth $77 million.  — A powerful late winter storm is developing and expected hit hard in Texas north through the Dakotas and Minnesota. It will bring everything from flooding rains to a howling blizzard.

Outrage:Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who makes his living expressing outrage about anyone who doesn’t think the way he does, says he has been caught in “the great American outrage machine.”

  Old radio recordings of Carlson saying stupid things about women and homosexuals have surfaced, causing some advertisers to abandon Carlson’s show. Carlson, who is 49, dismisses his radio comments as something he said 10 years ago and, so what?

  The Fox News people are very good at claiming victimhood when they cross the line. Handing off to Carlson last night, Fox’sSean Hannity said, “There is a mob that wants to destroy only Fox.” And Carlson answered, “We’re going to fight it.”