Facts can often be inconvenient, unless you happen to be John McCain or Barack Obama in which case facts can be ignored. In the case of the overtly pandering candidates, their rhetoric suggest they are oblivious to reality. Personally, I'm appalled at the lack of candor by the two major candidates. They both seem to be engaged in what can only be descibed as...fuzzy math. One wonders in the case of McCain where the straight talk has disappeared to. And with Obama, the oratory is top-notch, but the substance is lacking and he is almost certainly promising too much. The next President will be faced with some daunting challenges, but neither McCain nor Obama give the impression they have what it takes to stare down the special interests and make tough choices even if politically unpopular.
In recent days, John McCain has announced his intent to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Reestablishing some fiscal responsiblity in Washington is a laudable goal, but a quick glance at the McCain agenda suggests a balanced budget under McCain would be next to impossible to achieve. This is because McCain asserts he can get to a balanced budget by cutting wasteful government spending. The problem for McCain in his quest to curb spending is he won't have a friendly Congress to deal with. Thus, McCain won't get all the spending cuts through Congress he will seek, so it is just about certain he'll come up short in getting to a balanced budget by the end of his first term. If McCain were a true deficit hawk, he wouldn't discount the possibility of hiking taxes so revenue meets expenses. Instead, McCain is proposing more tax cuts which if enacted will only deepen the disparity between incoming revenue and outgoing expenses(and no the economy won't grow fast enough from another round of tax cuts to make up the difference). He refuses to consider a reduction in the bloated and wasteful military budget, and he is committed to a long term presence by American troops in Iraq. Put it all together, and McCain's promise of a balanced budget at the end of his first term shouldn't be taken too seriously.
As for Obama, lofty aims will likely be constrained by painful realities. With the nation drowning in debt, more spending will exacerbate the budget deficit. And since Obama isn't seeking to cut the military budget, he'll be hard-pressed to do everything he wants and not enlarge the budget deficit. To avoid a larger budget deficit which will put greater pressure on the weakened American dollar, Obama will probably have to scale back his agenda some even if he is successful in raising taxes on the affluent. As much as he may want to ignore the budget deficit, it isn't going away and it will complicate Obama's efforts to enact reform.
Bush is leaving behind a sea of debt that the next President will have to address. Maybe Ross Perot has to reenter the political arena before the current candidates are compelled to face this issue forthrightly.