I wonder if in the election it matters what the valuations are.
Most Americans can not evaluate the difference between hundreds of millions and hundreds of billions and trillions. The numbers are so large they are incomprehensible. Most Americans cannot distinguish between federal debt and federal deficit. To attach incomprehensible values to incomprehensible concepts is , well, incomprehensible.
What is real, what is understandable, is no job, fear of losing a job, the price of gasoline, of hamburger, of cereal, of ice cream. What is real is the effect the incomprehensible facts have on the daily struggle. It is the increasing intensity of the struggle that will decide the issue.
There are probably people that believe that Obama lowered the deficit from $500 billion to $1 Trillion. After all, 1 is less than 500, right?