Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, but that’s just not responsible governing. While I’m all for meeting pressing needs, as part of doing so, both the White House and the Congress have an obligation to find other savings or sources of revenues. Just like every household and business must.

I recognize that those of us who have warned of the ominous consequences of deficit and debt have yet to be proven right by a market crisis or the like. And the current gyrations in both stocks and bonds may not turn out to constitute that proof.

However, never in the 35 years since Ronald Reagan managed to eradicate fear of deficits from the national psyche have we flirted so aggressively with potential fiscal disaster.

For one thing, on present course and speed, deficits of more than $1 trillion will persist indefinitely. Indeed, if current policies are maintained, the gap would exceed $2 trillion by 2027, according to calculations by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

That would mean that the amount of debt relative to the size of our economy (the ratio of debt to gross domestic product) could reach a record 109 percent by 2027, exceeding even post-World War II levels.

For another, for the first time since at least the 1960s, we have thrown a deficit log onto a fire that was already burning briskly. That Vietnam War era decision — that we could have both guns and butter — contributed meaningfully to the raging inflation that erupted a few years later.