Obama actually believes we can “spend ourselves out of a downturn,” so it follows that he also believes we cannot budget-cut our way into prosperity. Today Obama continues to perfect his Demand-Curves-Slope-Upwards economic model. His idea of balance needs that 41:1 ratio of tax increases to “spending cuts”:

We can’t simply cut our way to prosperity. Cutting spending has to go hand-in-hand with further reforms to our tax code so that the wealthiest corporations and individuals can’t take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren’t available to most Americans. And we can’t keep cutting things like basic research and new technology and still expect to succeed in a 21st century economy.

It’s kind of like a morbidly obese slothapotamus announcing a long-needed balanced diet, then declaring the “balance” being 41 double-glazed donuts for every lima bean. “I can gorge myself into fitness” the beast eructs, “but the one thing I cannot do is calorie-cut my way into better health. That’s not a 21st century diet!”

In the analogy, the American people are the overworked heart trying to push through the grossly expanding wad’s increasingly clogged veins just to keep the vitals working. The long-term outlook isn’t pretty.