Someone once told me that budgets are moral documents. I think they said that while I was trying to balance my checkbook and the only thing that came to mind was distinctly immoral. But, of course, they didn't mean it that way. Or rather, they didn't mean it related to my opinion of the phone company.

They meant that budgets are a reflection of one's priorities. Is keeping the heat on more important than keeping the cable? (Yes, now that The Wire is off the air.) Is buying fresh vegetables as pressing as getting that good bottle of wine? (This week I think I can do both.) Budgets say what we care enough about to spend money on and the amount of money we spend reflects the magnitude of that priority.

Which brings me to President Barack Obama's first budget. It has been a long time since I have felt good about the choices that our national budget reflects. Not only does it treat the American people as adults by its lack of gimmicks and realistic assumptions, but it emphasizes long-term investments, rather than short-term fixes.

More below the fold on why this budget is so important and what you can do to help get it passed.

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I confess that I have been avoiding writing on the economy. Not for want of trying, I've probably tried to write a good half dozen posts that last two weeks on some aspect of the mess we face but time and again, I give up half way through in frustration and utter depression. Instead, I've focused on more cheerful subjects like Pakistan and Afghanistan. I'll take a score of failed states over our failing economy. And failing it is.

Tonight, well, actually, this morning since I can't sleep thinking about this mess that has enveloped the globe, the frightful bleed in jobs raises serious questions as to the depths of this downturn. This past Friday was a dark and dismal day. The US economy lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008 and it is now losing 600,000 a month. Basic math skills tell me that's quite a clip. The unemployment rate is now 8.1%. Now that's an interesting number because as Paul Krugman points out in his Behind the Curve op-ed in today's New York Times it is the number that the Obama Administration planned for year-end 2009 number. It's not-even mid-March and we have blown through it. That's certainly a worry in more ways than one.

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"I will not run after two hares." - Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in July 1998

On Monday, the President will host a "fiscal responsibility summit" at the White House and he is to give a prime-time speech to Congress on Tuesday before unveiling a budget overview Thursday. According to USA Today, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that the Administration pegs the current deficit at $1.3 trillion, or 9.2% of the overall economy, and projects that in four years the deficit will be down to $533 billion, or 3% of the economy as measured by the gross domestic product.

"The budget will cut the deficit that the president inherited upon assuming office at least in half by the end of his first term," said Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.

According to published reports, President Obama's 2010 budget includes plans for defense cuts -- including a rollback of the Iraq war -- and ending the Bush administration's high-income tax cuts. All laudable and necessary budget priorities but the Administration should continue to spend and invest in the American economy.

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