claim: today, the deficit is "below the average deficits over the past 40 years."
author: barack obama
evidence_1: federal deficits were declining in the mid 2000s as the nation climbed out of the  2000-02 recession. but the recession that started late in 2006 drove deficits  higher, with a deficit in fy2009 driven up by over $700 billion in bank bailouts  under the tarp program. after the crash of 2008 the federal deficits did not go  below $1 ...
evidence_2: dec 20, 2013 ... lowering the debt in 25 years to about 30 percent of output—which would be a  little below the average over the past 40 years—could be achieved by reducing  deficits by $4 trillion (excluding interest costs) during the next decade and  maintaining that reduction in subsequent years. achieving savings of $2 ...
evidence_3: lowering the debt in 25 years to about 30% gdp—which would be a little below  the average over the past 40 years—could be achieved by reducing deficits by  $4 trillion (excluding interest costs) during the next decade and maintaining that  reduction in subsequent years. achieving savings of $2 trillion or more during the  ...
evidence_4: feb 4, 2014 ... under current law, deficits will drop through 2015 but rise thereafter, boosting the  already high federal debt, cbo projects. economic ... spending. federal outlays  are expected to increase by 2.6 percent this year, to $3.5 trillion, or 20.5 percent  of gdp—their average percentage over the past 40 years.
evidence_5: jul 11, 2012 ... during the george w. bush years (2001-08), federal outlays averaged 19.6  percent of gdp, a little less than during the clinton years (1993-2000), at 19.8%  and far below reagan. (image credit: getty images via @daylife). please forgive  me. over and over, i hear misinformation about deficits in prior ...