Behind the promises

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday night with a lofty vision for the nation's future far easier to articulate than to accomplish. The next occupant of the White House will inherit a half-trillion-dollar budget deficit that will severely crimp plans for spending on new programs, as well as the messy endgame of the war in Iraq and growing energy and health-care challenges. A look at Obama's promises and the realities he would confront:

HEALTH CARE

THE PROMISE: Increase the number of people with health insurance by having the government subsidize the cost of coverage for low- and middle-income families. To help pay for that expense, increase taxes for those families earning more than $250,000. Obama also would require employers not offering health coverage to pay a percentage of their payroll toward a national health plan. And he would mandate that children have health insurance, and expand who can participate in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

THE PROBLEM: While the plan would help millions of people obtain health insurance, some health analysts say it falls short of universal coverage. The Tax Policy Center says the Obama plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 18 million in 2009, from the current figure of 45 million. That still would leave millions uninsured.

Obama's plan would let people choose a public, Medicare-like plan or browse a shopping center of sorts for private insurance plans. The National Health Insurance Exchange would create rules and standards for participating private plans, and insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy regardless of pre-existing health conditions.

THE ECONOMY AND DEFICITS

THE PROMISE: Obama has pledged to attack the weak economy with another stimulus plan to follow the $168 billion package of tax rebates for individuals and tax breaks for businesses that Congress passed last February. Obama's stimulus would include tax rebates, aid to state and local governments and increased spending for infrastructure projects. He would also increase spending in other areas, such as alternative energy programs. Obama promised to "go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less."

THE PROBLEM: Obama's spending plans and middle-class tax relief will collide with exploding budget deficits. The Congressional Budget Office projects this year's deficit will hit $400 billion, driven higher by the weak economy and the stimulus program Congress has already passed. And the Bush administration is forecasting that next year's imbalance will hit an all-time high of $482 billion.

ENERGY

THE PROMISE: A short-term rebate of $1,000 per couple to help with rising energy costs, release of up to 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and investment of $15 billion a year over the next decade to encourage renewable energy, clean-coal technology and electric cars. "In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East," Obama said.

THE PROBLEM: The next president will take office in January and confront an immediate crisis: The cost of heating homes is likely to be at record levels. Obama's promised rebate relies on enactment of a windfall profits tax on big oil companies, which could take months and is by no means sure to get through Congress. The last time the nation had such a tax, U.S. reliance on foreign oil went up. His longer-term solution, encouraging alternative energy by creating a $150 billion clean energy fund, relies for financing on a program of selling pollution allowances to combat global warming that is even more uncertain.

FOREIGN POLICY

THE PROMISE: Obama says he would engage allies and adversaries to repair the U.S. image abroad and regain leverage and leadership that he says Bush squandered. He says he will marshal international pressure against Iran, boost U.S. efforts against extremists along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and get a faster and firmer start on Middle East peacemaking.

THE PROBLEM: The United States has already reversed many policies other nations saw as isolationist -- for example, by joining international diplomatic efforts with "axis of evil" nations Iran and North Korea. Obama would continue those efforts and others without any greater guarantee of success. Any effort to step up activity in Pakistan will face strong resistance from Pakistani authorities.

EDUCATION

THE PROMISE: An $18 billion plan that would encourage, but not mandate, universal pre-kindergarten; teacher pay raises tied to, although not based solely on, test scores; an overhaul of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law to better measure student progress, make room for noncore subjects like music and art and be less punitive toward failing schools, and a tax credit to pay up to $4,000 of college costs for students who perform 100 hours of community service a year.

THE PROBLEM: With the budget stretched thin, a huge infusion of cash for early childhood education or college costs seems unlikely.