While Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell gleefully brags that his goal for the next two years is to defeat the president, Obama can say his is to reform a broken tax system and put America back on a sound fiscal and economic foundation, setting the stage for a new era of growth.

FORBES: Obama Should Send His Fiscal Commission's Budget Plan to Congress

It is certainly important to cope with immediate problems, but I want to see more fiscal reform - making the central government smaller, improving the accounts of local governments, reforming the tax system.

CNN: PLAIN SPEAKING IN JAPAN

Mr Hatoyama prevaricates over fiscal reform, arguing that Japan should wait until the next general election in 2013 before shaking up the tax system.

ECONOMIST: Japan's debt problem