After all the constant hand-wringing about the deficit from many feckless politicians, you might be surprised to learn that the deficit declined 13% over the past year. We face a lot of economic problems, but I remain unconvinced that the deficit is, at this moment, one of them. Edit to add: That said, it seems perfectly legitimate to me to use the deficit as a cudgel against Republicans who demagogue about the deficit when it comes to spending, only to ignore it completely when it comes to tax cuts. Pointing out that kind of hypocrisy is always good.