Neither candidate has the courage to speak straight with the American people about our nation’s fiscal problems. Asked about the financial crisis, McCain talked about energy independence, hitting the same talking points he used in July. Obama talked about the need to give tax cuts to the middle class, and expand spending programs, a proposal he put forward last year. Both men have proposed policies that will lead to an increase in the deficit, according to independent analysts, even without a dramatic economic downturn, which looks increasingly inevitable. Neither man has shown any clear intention to tell Americans to face head on the hard economic times that await us. This is politics. The candidates are playing it safe, not telling voters anything they don’t want to hear. They choose to demagogue Wall Street instead.

When times are hard at home, after all, you scrimp and save and avoid exorbitant expenditures. You keep working hard and hold on to the belief that prosperity will return sooner than later. Maybe under different circumstances you take out a loan and start a business and hope it's successful enough to make you rich and famous--but now you have children. You really want them to go to college. And so you can't in good conscience take on the risk.

But countries aren't like households. When times are tough the last thing they need is for their governments to freeze out discretionary spending. And, paradoxically, the Great Men of History who so badly want to be president wouldn't be doing their countrymen any favors by choosing this particular moment to suddenly restrain their vision.

Pentagon officials have prepared a new estimate for defense spending that is $450 billion more over the next five years than previously announced figures.

The new estimate, which the Pentagon plans to release shortly before President Bush leaves office, would serve as a marker for the new president and is meant to place pressure on him to either drastically increase the size of the defense budget or defend any reluctance to do so, according to several former senior budget officials who are close to the discussions [...]

“This is a political document,” said one former senior budget official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It sets up the new administration immediately to have to make a decision of how to deal with the perception that they are either cutting defense or adding to it.”

Rep. Roy Blunt, the Missouri Republican who serves as House minority leader, said he would support a stimulus plan if it did not include massive public works spending and budget bailouts for states that overspent on health care and other social programs.

“A stimulus plan that makes sense is something that I’ll be helpful with,” Blunt said, also on ABC television.

But in the medium to long term, once the immediate problems in the financial sector have been ironed out, we need a planned transition towards a cleaner future, not a headlong collapse into a new depression. That means – contrary to the suggestion of the "all growth is bad" school – that we need to grow our way out of this economic mess. A return to Keynesianism could be a good thing for the environment, if government-backed spending and investment drives growth in areas where it is desperately needed, especially particularly clean energy. The old days of environment versus jobs are over – we don't need to sacrifice quality of life in order to stimulate the economy.

Sen. McCain, I want to know, we saw that Congress moved pretty fast in the face of an economic crisis. I want to know what you would do within the first two years to make sure that Congress moves fast as far as environmental issues, like climate change and green jobs?