One hand taketh away, the other hand giveth.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama proclaimed, "Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion." It's a claim that the president makes frequently along with the notion that having done all that heavy lifting, Washington now needs to find a trifling extra $1.5 trillion in spending cuts or tax increases, and the nation's debt problems will be over. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]