Robert Samuelson gets it

I only recently learned who Robert Samuelson is, and it's a shame, because I've agreed substantially with a lot of what I've read and heard of him the last few months. Today's article is a good example; after laying out what seems like mere fiscal common sense, Samuelson concludes with something that's been on my mind for some time now:

The Obama budgets flirt with deferred distress, though we can't know what form it might take or when it might occur. Present gain comes with the risk of future pain. As the present economic crisis shows, imprudent policies ultimately backfire, even if the reversal's timing and nature are unpredictable.

The wonder is that these issues have been so ignored. Imagine hypothetically that a President McCain had submitted a budget plan identical to Obama's. There would almost certainly have been a loud outcry: "McCain's Mortgaging Our Future." Obama should be held to no less exacting a standard.

Something that impresses me about Samuelson is the following factlet, from his Wikipedia page"

Samuelson also does not vote in any elections (be they national, state or local) as he believes that voting interferes with his impartiality as a journalist.

Whether that impresses me well or badly, I haven't decided—but it does impress me. …and, of coures, it's Wikipedia, so take that with a grain of salt.