Or he can raise taxes. Forced by his own deficit spending, he may have to raise revenues, particularly to fund his health care proposals. Even if he confines the increases to upper-income taxpayers, they will undermine his popularity. And their economic effect is bound to be perverse.

But voters will fear that the added government spending will just grow the deficit further. They won't believe Obama's claims that he can reduce medical costs, and they will worry that he is just on another big spending spree.

And it is this fear of adding to the deficit that may prove to be the telling argument against Obama's health care spending. While voters will be worried that Obama's proposals will damage the health care system and will oppose his tax increases, it is the growth in the deficit that may torpedo his proposal.

The one thing Obama should do is the one thing he won't do: cut spending. The public has begun to realize that the stimulus package is doing little to help the economy. Obama's answer, of course, is to ramp up the spending. But Rasmussen indicates that voters feel, by 45 to 36, that he should cancel the rest of the stimulus spending.

The resulting deficit, voters believe, will do more harm than the spending will do good. This firm conviction, stoked by ongoing bad economic news, will increasingly wear on Obama's popularity and bring him down.