Faced with an unprecedented economic crisis, President Obama has responded with an unprecedented budget. While it promises to tackle some of the nation's most intractable problems, it also threatens to saddle the government with a debt load not seen since the end of World War II.

For this to work, the president and Congress are going to have to scale this vision back and accomplish some things, such as entitlement and health care reforms, that have proved politically impossible in the past.

While we agree with most of Obama's priorities on principle, we are concerned about the scope and timing of this much government spending on top of what has already been committed in the financial bailout and economic stimulus programs. With more bailout requests likely, part of this budget appears to be an overreach.

Obama acknowledged as much in his press conference Tuesday, saying that he did not expect Congress to "Xerox" his budget and pass it without making changes. He also signaled that he was open to stripping some measures out, such as a middle-class tax cut that was already included in the stimulus plan. His energy proposal, a campaign promise made before the financial meltdown, could also be stripped out, since it has a less direct impact on near-term economic growth.

An exception is Obama's commitment to health care reform. Out-of-control health costs do create a brake on economic growth and a disadvantage for U.S. companies.

They also burden Medicare and Medicaid, the two government health care entitlements, straining the budget and adding to deficits. It may be impossible to complete health-care reform in one year, but there is a unique opportunity that should not be missed to get started on a plan.

That's just one of the politically difficult challenges in the years ahead that would start to reduce the annual deficit. Others include entitlement reform and allowing the Bush tax cuts and the middle-class tax cuts in the stimulus package to expire, boosting revenues.

In the short term, the country needs a period to see some results from the bailout and stimulus programs before it can commit funds to new efforts.

If the budget can be stripped down and the political hard work can be accomplished, it would be headed in the right direction.