Thank you, for considering my point, please do check on my assertions, to ensure that they are truely facts. The federal deficit is a very simple concept, it is a function of federal spending EXCEEDING federal revenue, under Bush it averaged 20%, under Obama it averaged 40%. The congress made, and agreed to, "rules" that stated that ANY spending increases, must be "paid for" by either cuts in spending or tax increases to fund the new spending, UNLESS they were "emergencies". The congress is so stupid, or arrogant, that they even considered the 2010 census (a 200 year old tradition) to be treated as an "emergency" for spending purposes. The congress then chose to use only "promises" of spending cuts, occurring in future budget years (as many as 10 of them), to "pay for" new "non-emergency" spending in the current year. These "promises" are not law, or binding in any way, as no current congress may deny (or limit) any furture congress (or president) the power to "budget" as they see fit. USA, USA, USA...