Friends of Bernie Sanders has posted on Facebook Want to better understand why we have a federal deficit?.

Here is the image they use.

Here is my too complex comment:

Please shift the measurement to something important like the unemployment rate, the labor participation rate, and the level of inflation. Adjust the secondary things like deficits and level of taxation to produce good results in the primary things, and we will all be better off.

While these statistics are true and part of the cause of the size of the deficit, it is of course more complicated than this. We may simplify at our peril.

For any situation involving something as complex as the economy, we might be able to determine a proper size for the deficit. We might also be able to determine a proper role of corporate income tax. With a higher level of corporate taxes coming in, we might or might not have a lower deficit as the proper amount for the state of the economy. A lot depends on what companies are doing with the money they are not paying in taxes and a lot depends on what the deficit is being spent on.

When you sell the idea that the deficit is the primary measure of anything significant about the economy instead of how the economy is performing for all the people, then you are likely to be selling a one size fits all solution that probably does not fit all situations.