Can we grow out of deficits this big?

An 11-pound federal budget arrived with a thud on Washington desks Monday morning, underscoring an increasingly tough fiscal environment.

"Our fiscal gap is too great to grow our way out of this problem. Tough choices are going to be required," says David Walker, the Comptroller General and head of Congress's nonpartisan General Accounting Office (GAO).

At a Monitor breakfast he outlined stark choices: Reform entitlement programs like Social Security. Cut the base of discretionary spending which Congress controls. Change tax policies. "We are going to have to look at all three," he said.

Some $420.7 billion in military spending does not include ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to be funded in a request expected to come after November's election.

Gene Sperling, economic adviser to President Clinton, says the White House has engaged in "reverse generational responsibility" by running up debts at a time when the nation should be setting aside money to help pay for baby boomers' retirement.