I would certainly agree that it's poor planning to have expenditures consistently outweigh revenues. But to say it's just a spending problem is to entirely ignore the fact that there is insufficient political will to cut spending. Yes, I know that every single one of us can point to things in the budget that we think are needless or wasteful. But since compromise (or voting) always carries the day, it's a pointless argument to make when we don't all agree on what those things are.

So. If this level of spending is what we settle on, then responsible governing means raising revenues.