Below The Beltway

H/T: Bearing Drift

Today’s Washington Post laments the fact that tough economic times, and changing communications patterns, are leading to tough times at the U.S. Postal Service:

Things are looking bleak for the U.S. Postal Service.
It projects that it will deliver 9 billion — that’s with a “b” — fewer pieces of mail in fiscal year 2008 than it [...]

If you thought it ended with the bailout deal, boy were you wrong.
Now, the Bush Administration is exploring ways to come to the aid of Chrysler and General Motors:
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is examining a range of options for providing emergency financial help to spur a merger between General Motors and Chrysler, according to [...]

The vultures have already started claiming their piece of the $ 700 bailout package:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The bailout is now the hottest lobbying game in town.
Insurers, automakers and American subsidiaries of foreign banks all want the Treasury Department to cut them a piece of the largest government rescue in U.S. history.
The betting is that many [...]

The federal budget deficit has ended the fiscal year with another record:
WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — The federal budget deficit rose to $455 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 as financial market strains slowed economic growth while spending rose the most since 1990.
By comparison, the deficit a year earlier was $162 billion, while the [...]

In a front-page story, the Washington Post speculates that the current financial crisis, and the Bush Administration’s response to it, signal the end to “American capitalism;”
The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is claiming another casualty: American-style capitalism.
Since the 1930s, U.S. banks were the flagships of American economic might, and emulation by other nations [...]

Retiring Virginia Congressman Tom Davis is the subject of an article in today’s New York Times Magazine, and he doesn’t hold much back:
Tom Davis arrived in Congress with the Gingrich class of 1994, again ousting an incumbent Democrat, but he was hardly a revolutionary. Davis was a business-oriented Republican animated by economic competitiveness, fiscal responsibility [...]

We really appreciate that $ 1.5 billion you just gave us:
The U.S. Senate voted last night to authorize long-sought federal funding for Washington’s cash-strapped and aging Metro system, clearing a major hurdle toward providing $1.5 billion over 10 years to help maintain the nation’s second-busiest rail system.
The Senate passage is the furthest the measure has [...]

She was for it before she was against it:
ST.PAUL — In her nationally televised speech accepting the job as John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she “championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress” and opposed federal funding for a controversial bridge to a sparsely populated island.
“I told Congress, [...]

Ron Paul endorses Alaska Congressman Don Young (R., Bridge To Nowhere):
Former Republican presidential contender Ron Paul has endorsed Don Young in his bid to win an 18th term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Paul, the 72-year-old congressman from Texas whose maverick presidential bid drew wide support in Alaska, sent out a letter to his supporters [...]