Confidence

Faith, trust, confidence are some of the main ingredients needed to plan and invest for the future.
Now take the financial affairs of this fictional family: 
Their income is $25,000 a year, they're spending $37,000 and their debt stands at $150,000. Obviously, they are in trouble and the head of the family agrees. To get out of it, he decides reduce the annual deficit from $12,000 to only $11,950.
Would you take your own, hard earned money and lend it to them ?

The numbers correspond to the federal budget (after taking off several zeros). How does anyone believe that the government can act recklessly and instill confidence at the same time ?

If you were to advise this fictional family, you'd likely recommend bankruptcy. It may very well be too late for the government to avoid this fate, but any honest attempt to avert it, must start by slashing spending.
I know, some people would argue that you just need to raise income. But how ? What happens when you raise the price for any product or service ? People buy less of it. This is also true for taxes. When they go up, people will find ways to avoid them.

Trust and confidence can only be restored when reality is dealt with. Absent that, this "financial crisis" is only getting worse.