The disappearing deficit

This post is for my conservative friends who worry about the deficit. Thanks to Kevin Drum of Mother Jones for the chart. 

Drum, by the way, is one of the few liberals critical of California's dumb high-speed rail project. But San Francisco politicians, like Scott Wiener and Mayor Lee---are still on board the Train to Nowhere, along with the "good government" SPUR and Democrats in the state legislature, like Mark Leno.

Lieutenant Governor Newsom has deviated from the Democratic Party line on high-speed rail, which will make him look prescient if that Sacramento court---which is supposed to rule sometime this month---rejects the current version of the project as significantly different than what the state voted for in 2008.

In other high-speed rail news, there was this howler in this morning's Chronicle:

Although construction on the high-speed-rail system has not yet begun, development is well under way. Californians in 2008 approved almost $10 billion in bonds for the project and might have little appetite for ditching it in favor of an untested alternative.

"Development is well under way" but not construction? Hard to know what that means. But according to the polls the public no longer has any "appetite" for the high-speed rail project. Odd that business writers on the Chronicle are obtuse about the high-speed rail project. Aren't they supposed to be able to read financial statements and business plans?