The fiscal crisis, President Obama declared at a White House press conference today, consists of two problems: the deficit and debt. Spending? That’s something he’d like to see more of, only House Republicans won’t let him.

And there lies the core of the disagreement between the president and Republicans in the talks on raising the debt limit by the August 2 deadline the Obama administration imposed. Republicans want to deal with the cause, the surge in spending, and Obama prefers to focus on the effects, soaring deficits and a national debt that has increased by $4 trillion in the two-and-one-half years of the Obama presidency.