President Obama frequently touts a “balanced approach” to addressing the mismatch between the federal government’s revenue intake (taxes) and its spending. Writing for The Daily Caller, Jim Huffman, dean emeritus of the Lewis & Clark Law School, explains why that talk about “balance” is an example of pure politics.

The last-minute fiscal cliff deal is anything but balanced — by most estimates the ratio of new tax revenues to spending cuts is 40 to 1 or higher. House Speaker John Boehner is now saying balance requires offsetting future cuts in spending and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insists there will be no more talk of increased tax revenues, but both should know that they and their Republican colleagues have been suckered. Obama got much of what he wanted and Republicans got scarcely anything of what they wanted. That deal is done.

The president will demand balance in the next deal as well, because balance has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics. Balance is what savvy political negotiators seek. Give $1 and get $1. And if you’re really good, give $1 and get $2. But give $40 and get $1? That’s a wipeout. That’s what Alabama did to Notre Dame. And in politics, as in football, the next game starts with the score 0-0. Notre Dame doesn’t get to start the next game with a 28-point lead. Nor do Republicans begin the next round of negotiations with Democrats agreeing to $39 of spending cuts before talking about another dollar of new tax revenues.

Some economists will suggest that a balance between tax increases and spending cuts is necessary to avoid another recession that they say would result from too quickly eliminating the stimulative effects of government spending. But there is little evidence, beyond the administration’s and Paul Krugman’s assertions to the contrary, that the gusher of federal spending over the past four years has done anything to stimulate the economy. More importantly, there is strong evidence (including from Obama’s former top economic advisor Christina Romer) that marginal rates higher than about 33% do not yield higher revenues. It turns out that taxpayers are not robots.

But if you just keep saying something over and over again, as the Obama administration is prone to do, it turns out that many people start believing it, even in the absence of any supporting evidence.