Ask any voter what their main concern is, and you're likely to hear "jobs and the economy."  A secondary economic response may concern the federal debt and the federal deficit.

During a recent speech at Northwestern University, President Barack Obama told audience members that the deficit has fallen since he's taken office, contrary to claims made by his opponents.  President Obama said this:

"When I took office, the deficit was nearly ten percent of our economy.  Today's it's approaching three percent."

We turned to our partners at PolitiFact to see if the President's numbers were accurate.  PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin says that Obama's deficit claim rates HALF TRUE on the Truth-O-Meter.  Gillin says that part of the problem is how you define a "year."

"In his speech, President Obama was talking about a fiscal year and not a calendar year," said Gillin.  "The first fiscal year under Obama was actually a continuation of the fiscal year under President George W. Bush, and here's an interesting point:  the deficit was about three percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) at the beginning of Fiscal Year (FY) 2008, which was actually October of 2007, a full year before Obama was elected."

So then where does the ten percent fit into all of this?  "You have to go back and take a look what was going on during 2008," said Gillin.  "The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was starting to kick in, and that was adding to the deficit by leaps and bounds over the course of Calendar Year 2008.  By the start of Fiscal Year 2009, October 2008, the deficit was at nearly ten percent of GDP, which is where Obama is getting his number."

Is there a way to figure out what the deficit was on any given day, such as the day President Obama was either elected or when he was inaugurated?  "That would be very helpful information to have," said Gillin.  "Unfortunately, there's no way to do that, and complicating matters is the fact that the president may not be able to affect the economy as measured by GDP," said Gillin.  "We talked to economists who said that, essentially, taking credit for an economy that is rebounding and healing is a stretch for any president to do."

Economists also told PolitiFact that had President Obama used the phrase "in my first year of office," the claim would be more accurate.  However, because of the way it was phrased, PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter rates Obama's deficit claim HALF TRUE.

 

SOURCES: Deficit during Obama administration