Chicago Tribune

"They got locked in to spending less than $900 billion," said Len Nichols, an influential economist who heads the healthcare program for the centrist New America Foundation ...

Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, notes another cause for dismay. After promising that health-care reform would ...

"Having spent over a decade worrying about budget deficits," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, "I can quite honestly say that things have never looked as bad as they do now." Original article

... shine an unflattering spotlight on their economic management, said Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation, a Washington public policy institute. ...

In a few weeks, the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners will face off on college football's biggest stage in the Bowl Championship Series' National Championship game. Unfortunately, many of the college seniors playing in this game will not be walking across the graduation stage next May. Instead, their schools will revel in the short-term glory of gridiron success, while the players will have to face the long-term consequences of joining the workforce without a college degree. 

The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that--even assuming the sometimes-dubious savings the campaigns claim--both the Obama and McCain plans would add more than $200 billion to the federal deficit by 2013. And that estimate was compiled in September, before the candidates announced costly new economic stimulus plans. LINK

One of the most illuminating parts of the debate came when someone asked the candidates what sacrifices they would ask of Americans. McCain said that he would assess every federal program and "eliminate those that aren't working." Not that he could name one.

Obama was no more helpful. He encouraged Americans to conserve energy. Both of them vowed to take on ballooning entitlements, and both declined to explain how.

"They don't make any of the tough choices," despairs Maya MacGuineas, president of… more

...The threat of military blowback from the U.S. is not what it would be if there weren't 150,000 American troops stuck in Iraq," said Daniel Levy, a former member of the Israeli negotiating team now at the New America Foundation... LINK

...[T]he best here is medical journalist Shannon Brownlee's argument that health care is screwed up not because we don't ration care like Canada; or that malpractice lawsuits are to blame; or that absurd administrative costs raise insurance costs; or that consumers don't shop wisely since we often don't pay out of pocket. 

No, she contends that over-treatment is to blame not only for high costs but for often making us more sick, suggesting we spend $500 billion a year on unnecessary… more

Full article

. . . [John McCain] rules out tax increases to cut the deficit, while vowing to get tough on spending. But the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says that while his proposals would slow the growth of spending, total outlays would still rise faster than inflation. Result: a larger deficit. . .