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Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain offer voters a stark if orthodox choice on the economy. Democrat Obama would sharply skew tax cuts and spending toward lower-income people and social programs. Republican McCain would just as sharply tilt policy toward upper-income classes and business investment. With gas prices, food prices and home foreclosures all headed skyward, the current economic slowdown is tailor-made for a presidential election, hitting middle-class pocketbooks in ways not seen since Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980. The economy has displaced the Iraq war as the central focus of the election. The economic situation of the government, however, may leave orthodox economic remedies outdated. Intense new budget pressures, from the enormous cost of the Iraq war to escalating health care spending for an aging population, will pitch the next president into choices not nearly as palatable as either candidate's campaign promises imply."Everyone knows we're entering a difficult fiscal environment, and neither of the candidates have dealt with it in a serious way at all," said Steven Sheffrin, an economist and dean of social sciences at UC Davis.