Dollars & Sense October 2013 Q. The recent government shutdown confuses me. They were arguing about raising the debt ceiling and reducing deficits. At least I think they were. Can you explain to me the difference and what the big deal is? A. I can definitely explain debt and deficits, but I cannot explain our government. Actually, it’s a shame that there isn’t a national dialogue about our government’s annual budget; how much money to raise and from whom, and how much money we want to spend and on what. Maybe it will take a crisis to cut through all the grandstanding and blaming, but there really is a problem that we should all become aware of. My answer herein is just factual, not political. You can do what you want with the data. Firstly, let’s be clear on deficits and debt. Put simply, the deficit is the current year [...]