Actually, by proposing a tax increase for spending with no real corresponding cuts, the president has been arguing for growing deficits. And with a priority on “fairness” over prosperity, any chance of easing the $16 trillion national debt through an economic boom in the near future is improbable.

When you cut through the coverage, in fact, you’ll also find that the second most pressing item on the president’s agenda—after tax hikes on the wealthy and small businesses—is winning the unlimited authority to raise the country’s debt limit. Obama—who personally sat down with CEOs at the Business Roundtable to press his case—argues that having a cap on debt, rather than unlimited debt, is a “bad strategy” for the nation.

After that, much of the deceptive “savings” or “cuts” offered by Obama were already coming from the winding down of campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan—this itself supposedly temporary spending that is now baked into the baseline. You will remember that for Democrats, including the president, funding these wars by borrowing was unconscionable. Turns out, only the wars were the problem, not the trillions.