It doesn't matter who wins the White House in November.  Whether it is Barack Obama or John McCain, they are going to face a fairly severe budgetary situation, as in deficits that could well run over a half trillion dollars a year.

You read that right.  Deficits of over $500 billion.  Yearly deficits.

When the economy slides, money coming into the federal treasury starts to dry up.  Add to that the stimulus checks that were sent out, and the federal coffers are swamped in red ink.

(We won't even bore you with talk of what the real deficit looks like without using money from the Social Security Trust Fund to make things look better.  Bottom line: it ain't good.)

Who is to blame on this?  Well, partly the Republicans, who took control of Congress and proved conclusively that they are just as good as Democrats in spending pork barrel dollars.

Partly the Democrats, who rarely have met a spending program they didn't like.

Partly the Congress as an institution, which has become bored with budgetary oversight, producing report after report that documents waste, fraud and abuse, but really doing very little to rein it in.

Partly the Bush White House, which never forced the Congress to make financial choices after Nine Eleven, which sparked a big expansion of homeland defense and other programs, but no real cuts to pay for it.

Partly the news media, which always finds time for stories about Angelina Jolie, but not about some boring budget numbers.

Maybe the biggest problem of all has been a lack of leadership from both parties, the Legislative branch and the Executive branch.

Everyone talks a big game about making 'tough choices' but few actually follow through, because the voters like the talk, but don't like the decisions if you make real cutbacks.

Frankly, I'm not going to believe much of what either presidential candidate says about how to close the budget gap, especially given all the programs that they have promised already.

As for the few budget hawks in the Congress who try to shine a light on pork barrel spending, it's a very tough road for them.  At times, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) are about the loneliest guys on Earth, mainly because they drive their colleagues mad with their efforts to spotlight wasteful programs.

In the end, there's really only one person who can start the ball rolling on belt tightening, and that's the President.

If they want to do it.