Seeing red

While many were busy mourning the loss of actor Heath Ledger Wednesday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released it's estimate of this fiscal year's projected budget deficit. The Bush administration is going into the red to the tune of $250 billion. That includes 1) war spending and 2) the nation's evolving economic woes but doesn't account for 3) the yet to be negotiated economic stimulus package. What's not gotten attention of late is federal debt. We've racked up a deficit total of $ 9,188,640,287,930.39 as of Jan. 18. That's more than the GDP of China which comes in at $ 7,043,000,000,000. In this election season, the economy is an issue but budget spending has been off the radar. Maybe what these deficit issues really need are those Geico celebrity spokesperson ads.