A recent Congressional Budget Office report — "The 2015 Long-Term Budget Outlook" — reminds us that the federal government is slowly becoming an agency for taking care of the elderly. Almost everything else is being crowded out. We ignored that during the Obama presidency, and now it seems that the fledgling presidential campaign may do likewise. Hillary Clinton and other Democrats plug fairer economic growth. Jeb Bush and other Republicans are more forthcoming (they talk about raising Social Security's eligibility age) but concentrate their rhetoric on creating faster economic growth.
Government's central reality has gone missing. There's a bipartisan triumph of political expedience over professed beliefs. Liberals shrink many domestic programs, because they won't acknowledge that unchecked spending on the elderly is partially financed by curbing other activities — from food stamps to highway repairs. Conservatives weaken defense, because they won't concede that, even with cuts to domestic spending (including the elderly), an adequate military cannot be financed without additional taxes.
The irony is that — on paper at least — presidents and other political leaders can regulate the size and role of government through laws and budgets, but their control over the economy is (at most) indirect and incomplete. So what do they do? They make promises on the economy that they cannot easily keep, while dodging unpopular budget decisions that might actually improve government's performance. Both parties tell supporters what they want to hear.