Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

Government Printing Office GPO) employees Clark Hopkin, left, and Sam Simm, ready copies of President Barack Obama's fiscal 2013 federal budget books on Thursday in Washington.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

Government Printing Office (GPO) employees, from left, Leon Thornton, Quintin Mozie and David Pennington, work on copies of President Barack Obama's fiscal 2013 budget book on Thursday.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

Copies of of President Barack Obama's fiscal 2013 federal budget are readied for shipment.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

Copies of of President Barack Obama's fiscal 2013 federal budget are displayed at the Government Printing Office.

The budget contains an unemployment rate forecast averaging 8.9 percent in 2012, but a different projection may emerge:

"The forecast of the unemployment rate that will accompany the budget should be considered stale and out of date," wrote Alan Krueger, who is chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

In mid-November, when the economic forecasts were compiled, the nation's latest reported unemployment rate was 9 percent. Last month, the jobless rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.3 percent as employers added 243,000 new jobs.

Follow @msnbc_pictures

As local, state and federal officials fight over deficit spending, it is easy to understand how U. S. Postal Service administrators could get to the point of closing small, mostly rural post offices. Postal officials say that technology hurt the postal service. Sales and mail volume have dropped precipitously during the last decade, even in small post offices.

However, many people in small communities make the case that their post offices are important social and commercial crossroads.

Does our connectedness and sense of community that happens via the Internet make small, rural post offices a thing of the past? What about those who don’t have Internet access? Is it fair to ask these people to pay the price of progress?

Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review via AP

Waverly City Council member, Kim Billington stands in the town's post office, July 11, 2011 in Waverly, Wash. Nearly half of the 100 residents of Waverly turned out Monday night to protest plans to close the post office in the south Spokane County town. Billington says the post office is the only building in town that is staffed every day. Waverly is one of about 2,500 small post offices targeted for closure in a Postal Service budget-cutting plan. Residents will learn the fate of their post office later this year.

The McCook Daily Gazette reported on July 6:
WILSONVILLE, Nebraska -- The U.S. Postal Service sees the closure or consolidation of small, rural post offices as an opportunity to save money. Wilsonville, Neb. residents, however, see the possible closing of their post office as a genuine concern, an added expense and a definite inconvenience.

Linda Ollinger and her husband, Bruce, operate a car dealership and repair business. "We mail out parts and get parts," Linda said. "We use the post office every single day. I don't want to have to drive 15 miles to do our business. Closing it (the Wilsonville post office) will have a significant economic impact on us."

The Presque Isle County Advance reported on July 6:
USPS regional officials conducted a public hearing on June 28 at the Bismark Township Hall. More than 30 people were in attendance to express their concerns about safety, the loss of community identity, convenience, as well as the additional financial hardship added travels would create. Presented to USPS officials were 309 petition signatures in support of the continuance of service in the village.

The Devils Lake Journal reported on May 24:
Violet Smith, who works at the Tokio food pantry, said, “It's gonna be hard on us. A lot of people don't have a vehicle, on nice days we walk up there.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on June 29, 2011 in Washington, DC. Obama started the news conference by discussing the economy, before fielding questions about the War Powers Act and his authority to continue military support in the NATO-led offensive against Gadhafi forces in Libya and the ongoing budget negotiations with Congress.

It’s funny what doing home renovations makes you sensitive to. After hanging too many doors, painting too many walls, installing too many window treatments, and building too much furniture – I find myself noticing interior design and decorations more than I probably should.

Every time I see an event or a press conference in the White House I pause and think to myself that it looks overly ornate. It doesn’t look “American” to me.

Related
China hosts Sudan in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

Read the story about President Obama's Tuesday press conference or watch the video below.

AFP - Getty Images file

The political tussle over U. S. spending has ensnared an unlikely victim, the gray wolf, whose long-time status as an endangered species has been axed due to an addition to the federal budget deal. Federal protection for the wolves ends on May 5. Wildlife experts say the wolves had disappeared from the Rocky Mountain region until they were reintroduced in the 1990s, and their protected status has allowed them to recover from near-extinction in the Rocky Mountain region, according to the Sierra Club.

National Park Service / Reuters file

A wolf pack is pictured bedded down in the snow in Yellowstone National Park in this March 2007 photograph. Federal protections for some 1,200 gray wolves in Montana and Idaho officially end on May 5.

AP reports:
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Obama administration on Wednesday moved to lift Endangered Species Act protections for 5,500 gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes, drawing the line on the predators' rapid expansion over the last two decades.

Public hunts for hundreds of wolves already are planned this fall in Idaho and Montana.

Conservationists have hailed the animal's recovery from near extinction last century as a landmark achievement — one that should be extended to the Pacific Northwest and New England.

Click here for the full story.