Pop quiz time folks. If you had $15 million in Recovery Act funding to spend on a border checkpoint, which of these two checkpoints would you choose to spend the money on:

A) A checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day, and is rated among the government's highest priorities,

or

B) A sleepy Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that sees about three travelers a day.

Personally, I would probably go with option A.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released strikingly similar updated budget and economic outlook numbers this morning. As expected, the budget deficit will come in just under earlier predictions. OMB's Mid-Session Review places the government's total red ink for the year at $1.58 trillion, while CBO estimates $1.6 trillion. The government's long-term debt, which the White House now predicts will grow faster than previous estimates, will stand at 9.05 trillion in ten years. CBO paints a slightly rosier picture, projecting the 10-year debt to stand at $7.14 trillion, but admits that their assumptions about projected revenues over that time are high by historical standards, and, conversely, their assumptions about projected discretionary spending are low. Although these estimates are hardly certain, especially the long-term debt numbers, there is no doubt they will generate a great deal of discussion.

One of the important dynamics at play in the Recovery Act is the relationship between the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. Both agencies have similar missions. Theoretically, OMB implements the Recovery Act, and the Recovery Board oversees the law's transparency provisions. But when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, on Recovery Act transparency policy issues, it is not always clear which agency is in charge.

With the release of his detailed budget information in May, President Obama proposed cutting or scaling back 121 programs that would save the government $17 billion in FY 2010 - a very small first step in getting the budget deficit under control. Yesterday, CongressDaily published an article that examined the degree to which Congress accepted Obama's proposed cuts and the results are underwhelming.