Will Reality Get its Due?

If you've been wondering about the presidential candidates and how well they're connected to fiscal reality, there are two stories worth reading today. The Los Angeles Times has a piece on Democrat Barack Obama's long list of promises, and how unlikely it is that there will be enough money to keep them. The story raises the question of whether Obama could find himself in the same position as Bill Clinton did in the early 1990s -- sacrificing goals to get the budget under control. "The fiscal situation just isn't going to permit doing what Sen. Obama or anyone else would like," said Isabel Sawhill, a former Clinton budget official.

For Republican John McCain, the coverage focuses on his 360 degree turn on balancing the budget: first he said he would balance it by the end of his first term, then he said it would take until the end of a second term, then on Monday he went back to the first term deadline. At least some of the coverage blames this on infighting among McCain's fiscal advisory team and McCain is likely to find himself in the same boat as Obama when it comes to his promises and fiscal reality. But the paragraph to zero in on is this one from the Washington Post:

In the economic white paper his campaign released yesterday, [McCain] acknowledges that "the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." But he did not offer details about how he would achieve those reforms.

And the long-term challenge is the one to watch out for. Nearly every budget expert uses the same word to describe the federal budget: unsustainable. The next administration is likely to be the last best chance to get the situation under control. With the national debt at $9 trillion and growing, and with the entitlement programs likely to break the bank, we're probably not going to be able to put off action much longer. So, the question for the presidential candidates is, are they ready to take this on? Or have they already promised themselves into the poorhouse?