Below The Beltway

Slate Ad critic Seth Stevenson checks out a new Google service that lets you run a national advertising campaign from your desktop:

The national debt on January 20, 2009:

The national debt 420 days later, March 15, 2010:

That’s an increase of $ 2,009,785,907,226.99 (18.9%) in 420 days, or $ 4,785,204,541.02 per day, $ 199,383,522.54 per hour, and $ 3,323,058.71 per minute.
By contrast, it took George W. Bush four years to increase the national debt by the same amount.
Nice [...]

An eye opening video from The Cato Institute:

It’s that time of year again, time to set your clocks one hour ahead.
Despite the alleged benefits, a new Rasmussen poll shows that most Americans don’t think it’s a good idea:
Daylight Saving Time begins early tomorrow morning, but, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, 47% of Americans don’t think the time [...]

During an appearance this morning on Morning Joe meant primarily to hype the upcoming season of The Celebrity Apprentice, Donald Trump called for an end to half a century of free trade policy:

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Think about this for the moment. A 50% tariff on all Chinese-made [...]

Marc Ambinder notes that when it comes to reducing the size of government, there’s fairly solid evidence that most Republicans in Congress aren’t walking the walk:
Paul Ryan is the Republican idea man of the hour. Karl Rove endorsed Ryan’s approach to budget reform on Glenn Beck, and whenever Republicans are asked about their preferred alternatives [...]

$ 220,000,000,000:
The government racked up a record-high monthly budget deficit of $220.9 billion in February, the Treasury Department announced today.
The latest flood of red ink brings the total deficit for the first five months of the current fiscal year to $651 billion, far exceeding the $589 billion shortfall for the same [...]

Election season is approaching in Washington again, which means it’s time for the biennial focus on earmarks:
Facing an election-year backlash over runaway spending and ethics scandals, House Democrats moved Wednesday to ban earmarks for private companies, sparking a war between the parties over which would embrace the most dramatic steps to change the way business [...]

Former head of the Congressional Budget Office David Walker lays it on the line:
“Let’s say our government continues to take in about the same level of historical revenues, but we hold discretionary spending to 2008 levels as a percentage of the economy, and we don’t expand health care or other entitlements any further. That sounds [...]