Topic
Deficit vs. Debt: What Each Term Means and Why the Difference Matters
The deficit is a yearly gap between revenue and spending; the debt is the running total owed. Knowing which is which changes how fiscal news reads.
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How the Debt Ceiling Differs From the Deficit — and Why It Matters
The deficit is the yearly gap between spending and revenue. The debt ceiling is a legal cap on total federal borrowing. Here is how the two differ, and why mixing them up makes every budget standoff harder to follow.