They also talk about the scourge of homelessness and the city's fiscal mess.

Congress is in a fiscal mess of major proportions, yet hardly anyone is paying attention.

The fiscal mess we face ought to be the theme of this election.

Unlike financial crises, which can come and go more or less overnight, fiscal messes take decades to clear up.

But when Mr. Clinton took office in 1993, the fiscal mess was getting worse.

The final and most serious argument is that whatever the short-term benefits, the tax cuts have left us with a long-term fiscal mess.

This is how we have gotten into the fiscal mess we are in.

But surely we should "save" it, and thus put aside the fiscal mess of the '80's.

Which is precisely the kind of attitude that got us into this fiscal mess in the first place.

Indeed, in the general desperation to get past the state's fiscal mess once and for all, there may be an opportunity for bold action.