FOM,
Deficit and national debt are two different things, the fact that the 2013 deficit ratio decreased from the 2012 ratio reflects several things, one being increased tax revenue (one being the expiration of payroll tax holiday), sequestration reduction of spending forced on Obama by the opposing party, and reduced spending on the Afghanistan "war". The debt still increased by 680 BILLION dollars in 2013 (as compared to 1087 BILLION deficit in 2012). The reason this is a reduction is because it was so astronomically high in Obama's previous four years. Maybe with the many taxes contained in ACA the "ratio" can again be lowered temporarily before the GDP starts to falter.

Our national debt has doubled under the Obama administration (equal to all debt of all previous administrations combined). If, for some reason the interest rate on our national debt rises, causing increased outgo, the unsustainable point caused by the many "benefits programs", will arrive in even a shorter time.

Maybe we should, as you say, consider import/export restrictions, do you see this happening ?

This administration needs to quit pushing government dependency programs and implement something meaningful like developing a national energy policy, abandoning this "g****l w*****g" carbon tax scheme, oops, they have changed that wording to "c*****e c****e" now with all the cooling that is going on, or how about not calling CO2 (what you breathe out and trees need to live in order to produce oxygen) a pollutant so it can be taxed ?? Some program besides giving money to banking friends to create jobs.

If I read you right you want to wait until the debt is unsustainable before we do anything different ??? Well, that is one way to go...
1oldgeezer

fom,
you say you are "on the front lines", but we are ALL on the front lines, the "small improvement" you see is IN SPITE of this administrations policies; sustained only by its borrowing policies.
Consider yourself just getting a credit card and starting to use it for wh**ever you wanted, you would have an "improvement" in your financial well being for a period of time as you accumulated debt. I mention this so you can personally relate to what is causing the "small improvement" in the economy you seem to think this admin's policies are causing.
The government is borrowing approx 85 billion dollars a month (FED credits) in order to sustain that "small improvement" you are talking about. (The US government is pumping about 1 trillion dollars a year of borrowed money into the "economy"; we, as a country are presently living on that credit card.)
Question for you...where would you be when your credit card reached its limit,(I think your "small improvement" would end) and how much interest would you have paid in the process? And where would you go from there?
We need to change our jobs/taxation/dependency/energy policies in order to create jobs before that happens.
We, as a nation, are really being had, and I some how think all this is lost on you.....
1oldgeezer