When he releases his budget proposal on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will be able to celebrate the smallest deficit since he took office in 2009. He also will be able to enjoy a cease-fire in the fiscal battles that have paralyzed Washington for the past three years. But a troublesome fact lurks behind the good news: Obama and his Republican adversaries still have done little to improve the United States’ long-term fiscal outlook. Though tight spending caps have already shrunk spending by the Pentagon and other government agencies to their lowest levels in 50 years, they will do nothing to slow the steady growth of government health and retirement costs as the nation’s millions of Baby Boomers age.
