The only reason the U.S. 2009 budget is green

George W. Bush's $3 trillion budget might not have very many provisions for green technology in it, but, thanks to some clever administration officials, we can gloss over that by saying that the budget itself is a lot greener this year.

In fact, the budget does not physically exist. This makes a tremendous amount of sense, especially considering that the Democratic Congress is about to tear through it, delete, and add like crazy. Previously, this deliberation process created constant need for reprinting after reprinting.

And then there's the 3,000 copies of the 2,200-page tome that are given away to the press and the public every year. Yes, it's a great big waste. But now we can thank the Bush administration for eliminating the paper budget once and for all.

The administration says the move (despite including a Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC so the president can show it off to Congress) actually saves money. And, of course, they let us know exactly how many trees it saves: 480.

Of course, using the market's most expensive tablet PC as a glorified PDF reader is pretty foolish. But if you want your own copy of the budget, it's never been easier. Just head to www.budget.gov and check the bottom of the page. It's even broken into categories so you don't have to download stuff you don't care about!