. . . Although sharp contrasts are evident in the policies and philosophies of McCain and Obama on the economy, Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, sees one fundamental similarity: To a surprising extent, especially when compared with other recent presidential campaigns, “what we’re hearing from both candidates, at this point, seems so out of touch with the reality” of looming budget problems.

Surprising, because both candidates early on seemed quite aware of the budget reality, said MacGuineas, a McCain staffer in his 2000 presidential campaign who has had contact with both camps. Polls showed that the lack of spending restraint hurt Republican candidates in 2006 and helped Democrats lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. McCain’s history seemed to make him the ideal candidate to reverse the GOP’s recent turn toward tax cuts without spending cuts, MacGuineas said. And after meeting with Obama early in the campaign, she said, “I got the idea that he really understood the budget challenges” and saw political opportunity in drawing a sharp distinction with Bush’s approach.

And yet, “you wouldn’t know it from the agendas [the two] are putting out,” MacGuineas said. Both candidates are pledging to continue most of the Bush tax cuts, while proposing costly new initiatives—in McCain’s case, the elimination of the alternative minimum tax, a cut in corporate income taxes, and the acceleration of depreciation for new investments in capital goods; for Obama, in addition to his tax cuts, a huge new commitment to universal health care. . .

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