Deficit numbers hamstring next president

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The $700 billion financial bailout on top of a $400 billion deficit will hamper the next U.S. president's spending plans, a political analyst said.

"It's really a federal fiscal catastrophe in coming years," Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute told Politico. "With all this stuff coming up now, it's massive, big decisions the next president is going to have to make."

Besides the bailout of a troubled Wall Street, the Washington publication noted the next president would inherit two wars that are approaching $1 trillion in combined costs as well as a Medicare prescription drug benefit with its projected $700 billion price tag over 10 years.

In Friday's debate, only fleeting attention was given to the fiscal shape of the nation under a presidency of either Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Politico said.

McCain last week indicated he thinks he could make permanent the Bush tax cuts and balance the federal budget in his first term.

Obama suggested he would be able to deliver on his plans for healthcare, education, energy, middle-class tax cuts and the environment. Obama said later, however, he'd phase in his programs in light of Wall Street's woes.