On Monday, President Bush sent his budget request to Congress. While not surprising, the budget is sobering. Beyond the tax cuts and initiatives outlined in last week’s State of the Union address, the new budget demonstrates the growing expanse of government and the urgent need for Medicare and Social Security reform. As the budget makes quite clear, if today’s deficits are disconcerting, the mounting liabilities of Social Security and Medicare are cataclysmic. The president outlines an ambitious agenda: “winning the war against terrorism, securing the homeland, and generating long-run economic growth,” all while tackling the excessive government spending and the looming fiscal crises of Social Security and Medicare.