Let’s say your car is on cruise control at 100 miles per hour, and there’s a brick wall in the distance. The responsible course of action would be to slow down gradually and turn the car so it’s no longer pointed toward the brick wall. But if President Obama were driving the way he conducts fiscal policy, he’d be lowering the speed to 98 miles per hour and continuing on the same trajectory — simply assuming he’d be able to slam on the brakes right before impact.

During a Wednesday interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Obama warned against adopting a “crisis mentality” when it comes to concerns about the mounting national debt. With the debt currently approaching $17 trillion, Obama said, “we don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt.”