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Well, a deficit reflects an imbalance between spending and revenue, and so narrowing it requires acting on one, the other or both.

When the economy is growing, there's a lot that can be done to deal with the deficit.

Well, I think what we need to remember is that budget deficits can impede economic activity.

Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.

I think it's absolutely clear that the fiscal path we are on is not sustainable, and for me, the best analogy is these deficits are like a cancer, and over time they will destroy the country from within.

Economically, long-term joblessness means fewer dollars for consumption. For deficit control, it means fewer taxpayers contributing to government revenues and tens of billions more spent on unemployment insurance.

Traditionally, the way deficits have been cut is you hold expenditures more or less constant in real dollars and then let growth come in to fill it up.

I have spoken about deficits, and I think deficits are important because they address broad economic and financial stability. We need to talk about that.

It certainly would be helpful going forward for deficit reduction efforts to focus on the medium term while not subtracting from the impetus we need to keep a fragile economy moving forward.