White House projects record deficit for 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush’s budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.
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President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year.

The budget doesn’t include the cost of the wars in South Asia, so add another $80-100 billion to the deficit, and it doesn’t adjust for the Social Security over payments that are just being spent as they come in, as if they were general revenue, so the deficit is in the neighborhood of $800-900 billion.

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The BBC tells us that for that sum, Richard Branson has a deal for you.

The British business tycoon, Richard Branson, has unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space.
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A crowd of engineers, dignitaries and space enthusiasts gathered inside a hangar in the Mojave Desert in California for the unveiling of White Knight Two “Eve”.

Virgin Galactic has contracted the innovative aerospace designer Burt Rutan to build its spacecraft at his Scaled Composites factory in California.

The pictures on the BBC are a little small, so you might want to drop the Virgin Galactic press room for something bigger.

Eventually the VSP will admit that the economy has been in “economic slowdown” since last Fall, but real people already know that. Prices for the things that have to bought or paid for, like food, gas, and utilities have been rising while jobs have been disappearing.

Given this reality why are the political parties holding conventions and wasting all that money, not to mention the environmental costs of all these people traveling to these areas? They are coronations, not decisions. There will be nothing new come out at these meetings. The Republicans didn’t really care, and the DNC made sure that the convention would be meaningless.

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The McCain Campaign’s newest hire?