A time to take action...

IF FANS of President Obama's soaring campaign rhetoric hoped to be lifted into the stratosphere by his first address to Congress Tuesday night, the plunging economy demanded a much sterner approach. Obama traced the current economic crisis to a long era of irresponsibility - an era of vast public and private debts, of dependence on imported oil, of unchecked health costs, of Americans looking no further than the next mortgage payment or the next election.

But now the "day of reckoning," as he put it, is upon us. Obama noted steps already taken to lessen the pain: a massive economic stimulus bill; a plan to slow foreclosures. More important, he began preparing the ground for the long-term changes needed to ensure prosperity in the future. Some of those are matters of public investment in neglected areas, such as alternative energy. Politically, that's the easy sell.

But Obama also understands that, at some point in the near future, he and Congress will need to bring back the fiscal restraint lost during eight years of borrow-and-spend economics. With the federal government running up debt rapidly, it's all the more urgent to show Americans - not to mention foreign lenders - a plan to avoid leaving subsequent generations with "mountains of debt," as Obama put it.

Pointing out the problem isn't enough. Obama needs to push for specific fixes. He at least hinted at an approach Tuesday. He would close the gap between revenue and spending by undoing past tax cuts for the wealthy, and promote private thrift through tax-free universal savings accounts. He also vowed, in broad terms, to address the growing costs of Social Security and Medicare.

The president cannot make these things happen on his own. Despite Obama's many overtures, most GOP lawmakers checked out of the stimulus debate by reflexively opposing the measure. And Republicans watching in the House chamber Tuesday could not bring themselves to applaud even for extending healthcare to poor children.

And Republicans aren't the only ones capable of intransigence. Many Democrats weren't pleased when an Obama economic summit Monday flirted with the subject of entitlement reform. And perhaps Medicare reforms are best bundled, as Obama suggested in his speech, with a larger overhaul of the healthcare system. But Obama's glancing treatment of the subject bespoke little confidence that he can bring his own party to a point of compromise on the issue.

Polls suggest that voters are willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. Given the severity of the economic crisis, bold reforms - in the financial sector, in government budgeting, in the larger economy - will do far more to restore public confidence than any half-measures.