Depends on whose theory you're talking about. I never understood why budget cuts were the Republican rallying cry, because they're almost entirely meaningless when you mint your own reserve currency. If I could impart one thing and one thing only to every American, it would be that the federal budget does not work like a household budget, and the federal deficit is not a credit card. All of these appeals to overspending are just trying to gin up a very specific flavor of fear.