With all the noise from the GOP convention, let's look at reality about the deficit

PJ:  If you read anything in the American press about the deficit it will usually focus on republican claims that President Obama's administration has exploded the deficit.  The graph below from the CBPP shows that the enormous growth in the US federal deficit came not from measures imposed to ward off a depression during the Obama-era but from the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan coupled with the revenue shortages from the Bush-era tax cuts.