Much of the deterioration resulted from huge Bush-era tax cuts, which left the nation chronically short of revenue, especially when it had to pay for two wars. And because the budget was already in bad shape when the financial crisis hit in late 2008, the necessary spending to rescue the system only deepened an already deep deficit. Unchastened, Republicans — joined by a few Democrats — are now determined to dig the hole even deeper by calling for all of the Bush tax cuts to be extended beyond their scheduled expiration at the end of this year.

WHAT ABOUT THE STIMULUS? The deficit has risen further under President Obama, to about $1.4 trillion this year, as the White House has tried to contain the recession it inherited.

The $862 billion economic stimulus, enacted by the Obama administration and Congress in 2009 along with subsequent aid, like extended jobless benefits, prevented a bad situation from becoming much worse, by supporting consumer demand at a time when private sector demand had collapsed. More help is needed. So far, stimulus accounts for an estimated 15 percent of the deficit in 2009, 28 percent in 2010 and 14 percent in 2011.

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DOES THE BUDGET HAVE TO BE BALANCED? An economically powerful country can prudently run some deficits. A reasonable budget goal would be to reduce annual deficits to the point where the debt — the sum total of annual deficits, now $9 trillion — is no longer growing faster than the economy. Once the debt is stable, the nation would most likely avoid the worst effects of persistent deficits, including sharply higher interest rates and slower growth.

Under current projections, that would require cutting the deficit to about 3 percent of gross domestic product from 10 percent today. When he established a bipartisan deficit commission, Mr. Obama called for reaching such a goal by 2015. Given today’s weak economy, that is probably too rapid. The aim is sound, even if it takes closer to a decade to get there.

WHERE ARE THE SAVINGS? The government needs to tighten its belt. Finding deep, near-term savings will not be easy for one basic fact: the largest chunk of the budget — the 40 percent going to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — is the most difficult to cut, politically and for sound policy reasons.