Sad day for Suzy and the rest of us Palin fans.

(Post 2009 figures are budgetary estimates!)

Barack Obama presented his $3.8 trillion budget yesterday to muted fanfares of fiscal responsibility and chagrin of NASA cuts. Obama’s budget seeks to rein in government spending while delicately attempting to revive the America’s flagging economy.

While the American press is hopping on the palitable story of how NASA’s Constellation program has been chopped off at the knees, the real meat. The real message of the budget is jobs, jobs, jobs.

The US jobless trend is scary. The past two years have seen the number of people seeking work double from 5% to almost 10%. These highs have not been seen since the early 1980′s.

Obama is addressing the weak employment numbers by applying over a $100B in stimulus programmes to staunch the flow of new jobless. Despite the announcement of the tax cuts for small businesses that hire employees, Obama’s budget forsees the percentage those out of work to drop ever slow slightly to average at 9.2%. Perhaps a nod to further economic weakness before Budget 11 comes into force on October 1st next?

The elephant in the room, however, is the US’s widening national debt now standing at over $12.2B. With the biggest deficit in history, can Obama’s reform pump the much needed stimulus in the US economy?

Budget 11 facts:

• $53B in tax cuts
• $30B in tax breaks to incentivise small business to hire new employees
• $6B for clean energy tech innovation
• $735M for full body scanners in airports
• $15.5B proposal aimed at IP from US firms being floated to international subsiduries in tax havens
• 3 year freeze on non-military and medical aid spending – aims to save $447B
• End to fossil fuel subsidies, raising $90B over next ten years
• 10 year old tax rates for the rich reinstated: 36% tax rate for single people earning $200k and over (up 3%), 36.9% for couples earning $250k and over (up 4.6%)
• New bipartisan fiscal commission composed of Democrats and Republicans
• Budget 11 kicks off Oct 1

Despite Obama’s tough love budget trying to balence the need to shave off unnecessary spending and apply the right sort of stimulus into the American economy, his stern hand on the tiller freezing Federal spending for three years might be too much for his Dem colleagues in the Congress. Pelosi has already been commenting that spending freezes should include Defence.

President Obama just delivered an address on today’s Budget 11. Some of the key takeaways of the speech:

• More than 6% increase to Education Dept
• Eliminate wasteful subsidy to banks that provide loans to college students
• A Goverment spending freeze for 3 years. MedicAid, MedicCare, Dept of Defence and veterans benefits go untouched.
• This year, $20B was cut from the budget. It’s a continuation of the $17B in cuts found last year.
• Examples of areas cut – mining cleaning program, forest service cuts, refurbishment of a facility belonging to the Dept of Energy
• Other cuts were more painful – eliminate a Government program to clean buildings. A $120m program to get earned income tax credit in advance, Obama said 80% of people didn’t comply with terms of program.
• Obama asked for asking Democrats and Republicans to look at the spending of programmes
• The SAVE programme that asked fed employees to suggest improvements taken into account.
• Even though Department of Defence is exempt from budget freeze, not exempt from sensible decision-making. Obama

• Cut to taxes for the Middle Class are up, but big earners e.g. individuals that earn over $250k a year an oil companies are not exempt from cuts.

Obama finished off his speech by proposing a bipartisan fiscal commission. He said the idea had strong bipartisan support citing a lot of Republican cosponsors for the initiative. Despite it getting voted down in the Senate, he said it was a needed if American had to go ahead and fully embrace to get it’s “arms around the budget”.

Obama continued by saying that politicians needed to readopt the Pay As Go rule, so if money is needed for programmes it must be found from other programmes. He said this approach lead to budget surpluses of the 1990s.

More details on Budget 11 on budget.gov.

More analysis to come

You can watch the questioning live on the inquiry website.

If there video is a little too small for you and you’d like to see live commentary, check out the BBC’s coverage on their site. A little IP spoofage may be necessary.

The Guardian also has a nice rolling commentary of the questioning.

Blair is expected to be in the hotseat until 5pm this evening. The coming weeks see Clare Short, John Reid and  Jack Straw before the inquiry.

Photo: BBC livestream

Today, Spyker‘s CEO Victor Muller said that Saab (his firm’s new addition) would struggle to sell 100,000 cars this year. This despite his insistence that he was ”looking forward to a bright and exciting future” on the announcement of the deal.

News came on Tuesday, that Saab has been saved from oblivion by Dutch sports car manufacturer Spyker. General Motors, the world’s second-largest car seller had begun to wind up the Saab’s operations. The last-minute deal inked with Spyker will yield Saab $74 million in case and $326 million in preferred shares in Saab. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of next month and both Saab and Spyker will be managed by a new parent company Saab Spkyer Automobiles.

Part ownership by General Motors paired with an investment of $600 million came in 1989. Saab’s DNA was shared with GM’s Opel Vectra. By 2008, GM sales were hurting and it put the Saab marque under review. Saab sales in 2008 numbered 95,000. Sales dropped to 40,000 the following year.

Saab has been in sale ping-pong for many months now. Spyker had jumped into the breach after Koenigsegg (another sports car maker) pulled out citing successive delays in closing the deal as its reason. Spyker’s deal beat a competing offer by investment firm Genii Capital and F1 honcho Bernie Ecclestone.

While Saab has been on the ropes, it has been hard at work in reinventing itselfin order to find its customers that have moved to other manufacturers. Just last September, Saab showed off its rebooted 9-5 at the Frankfurt Auto show.

Video via WorldCarFans.com

Built on GM’s Epsilion saloon, the new 9-5 appears to be a completely different animal. Gone is the paneling that creased the sides. Detailing around the cab is much more subtle. The new 9-5 is sleek and built to The gently sloping canopy sinks into the boot, a swift nod to the classic 9-5 profile. Engine sizes differ too, moving down a fwe notches. The range starts at a 1.6l turbocharged up to a max 2.8l V6. On launch, Saab will ship the 2.0l four cylinder turbodiesel with 160 brake horsepower.

Production of the new 9-5 has already begun in Saab’s facilty at Trollhättan and the new model is due on forecourts before the Autumn. Could it help win back Saab fans? Time will only tell.