Originally Posted by Atticus

You're confusing the deficit with the debt. And your example makes zero sense. Thats not what it means when they say the deficit has been cut.

There is a deficit every fiscal year. Cutting the deficit means the deficit this fiscal year is less then the deficit last year. The deficit for fiscal year 2013 (ending Sept 30th) was $680B. The deficit in fiscal year 2009 was $1.4 Trillion.

This $1.4T number is included in the numbers that the GOP like to talk about (as does your CBS News link) when discussing the debt increase under Obama. However the 2009 fiscal year technically started Oct 1st 2008 and was part of the budget proposed by Bush in June of 2008. It included all of the previous administration economic policies.