Barack Obama has set quite a goal for himself: He wants a fiscal stimulus that will both boost today's economy and lay the groundwork for "long-term sustained… growth." Doing both will not be easy. In fact, it may not be possible. So which is more important?

It seems paradoxical, but some well-connected health reformers are arguing that a costly remake of U.S. insurance may be more likely in the wake of the economic slump. Their theory: Since we are already spending hundreds of billions to bail out the financial system and since the Obama Administration is likely to pump out a similar amount in fiscal stimulus early next year, the time may be right to spend a few hundred billion more on health coverage for the uninsured.

Last night, at one of those ubiquitous Washington cocktail receptions, I ran into an old friend who, for more than two decades, has been a policy analyst at a federal agency. Her hair-raising story, familiar to many inside the Beltway, is worth retelling as a new president prepares to take office. My friend runs a modest research shop within the bowels of a huge agency. Her job, to oversimplify a bit, is to take a hard look at billions of dollars of federal programs to determine what works and what doesn't.

Note to President-Elect Obama: Don't do it. I understand the politics. I even get the symbolism—iconic industry and all that. But the economics is really bad. Here are five reasons why:

In a remarkable year, we have seen financial bubbles burst throughout the world. It is, say the market gurus, a deleveraging of historic proportions, unwinding decades of overreliance on easy money. But one bubble remains. It is the U.S. fiscal bubble. While other borrowers around the world are getting crushed by the sudden disappearance of credit, the U.S. Treasury is tapping bond markets at a once-unimaginable pace. On Nov. 3, Treasury announced it would have to raise $550 billion in the quarter ending Dec. 31. That is on top of the $530 billion it raised from July to September. More than $1 trillion in new debt. In six months.

After two years, endless charges and countercharges, the 2008 campaign is down to its final day. It seems like a good time to take stock of what I liked about this race and what I did not. I liked fact checking. Never before in a political campaign have so many done so much to call out candidates who fudge, exaggerate, manipulate data, and outright lie. I don’t know that all of this fact checking slowed the growth in irresponsible rhetoric, but it made us far more aware of each bit of blarney. I like that TPC did its part on taxes and health, and props to others out there doing similar work.

With the election a day away, today seems to be the appropriate time to summarize the differences in the candidates’ plans. The main differences are two: first, McCain proposes much larger tax cuts than Obama; and second, Obama’s plan tends to favor low- and middle-income taxpayers while McCain’s plan is more beneficial to those with higher incomes.