With the presidential election looming just a week from tomorrow, missile defense programs may face tighter financial times no matter whether Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic White House hopeful, or Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican standard-bearer, wins.

The outlook for spending on space programs is less clear, but it is a certainty that the cooling economy will create tough fiscal pressures on all government programs, as a probable recession causes tax revenues to nosedive, while pushing up spending on programs for the unemployed and bailouts for financial institutions.

While Obama hasn’t specified line-by-line what he would do with budgets for defense programs such as the Missile Defense Agency and other missile-related efforts, many leaders in his party have called for deep cuts to defense outlays generally. (Please see story on Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in this issue.)

For his part, McCain hasn’t pledged to provide more funding for defense, as President Bush did as a candidate in the 2000 elections, when Bush promised that "help is on the way."

To the contrary, McCain has promised a tough review of defense programs, saying he will crack down on errant contractors and soaring costs.

As an example, McCain has used his position as the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee to challenge major contract awards.

Largely because of his actions, the Air Force roughly half a decade ago was blocked from buying 100 aerial refueling tanker planes from The Boeing Co. [BA], because McCain complained about the structure of the lease-purchase deal and its costs, and because he helped to unearth a conflict of interest by an Air Force procurement official.

McCain today is saying he saved taxpayers $6 billion, because buying the planes outright would have been cheaper than the lease-purchase arrangement. In other words, buying 100 planes would have cost $17,5 billion, or $175 million each.

But when he and others pressed to have the Air Force rebid the contract, it wound up costing more in total dollars: $35 billion or so to purchase 179 planes outright, or $195.5 million each.

That award went to Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC], which offered the Air Force a plane made by Airbus Industrie, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.

Boeing protested the Air Force contract award, and the watchdog agency — the Government Accountability Office, or GAO — upheld the Boeing argument, finding multiple flaws in Air Force contracting actions.

Years slipped by since then, and now the Department of Defense kicked the decision on yet another contract award into next year, at the earliest. That means either Obama or McCain will be president when the tanker procurement contract award is decided.

Boeing is headquartered in Chicago, in Obama’s home state.

While Obama has expressed sympathy for the heavy strain on limited numbers of troops in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it could place further downward pressure on spending for weapons procurement if he opts to increase the total numbers of personnel in the armed forces, or end strength, which would be an expensive proposition to recruit, train, outfit and pay them.

On the other hand, he has pledged to end the war in Iraq, which is costing $10 billion a month, so that could become a bill-payer for other programs (less the costs of additional troops he would send to Afghanistan.)

McCain, in contrast, has spoken of staying in Iraq as long as it takes to win, at one point speaking of 100 years.

Many of Obama’s fellow Democrats have attempted to slash spending for missile defense programs deeply, especially missile shield systems that still are in development such as the Airborne Laser and Kinetic Energy Interceptor.

On space programs, while Obama at one time expected to use cuts in NASA budgets to pay for other programs, he has come to understand that NASA is facing tough times, with Bush having mandated retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2010, which will throw thousands of people in Florida out of work.

Obama now supports developing the next-generation U.S. spaceship system, Orion-Ares.

McCain has been a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees NASA authorizations. Critics have complained strongly that NASA has been underfunded for years. If McCain loses his presidential bid, and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) loses his Senate seat because of corruption charges, McCain could wind up as the committee vice chairman.