[Go Gordon]

but 2015 still isn't done yet, that's why we can make up what ever number we want.

Doesn't the fiscal year for the US run from 10/1 to 9/30?

[expat_panama]

...2015 still isn't done yet...

  ...the fiscal year for the US run from 10/1 to 9/30?

Huh.  So the idea could be that they got their deficit/GDP numbers using a kind of Fiscal GDP that had 2015 be the average GDP rates for '14Q4 thru '15Q3. 

However what the article actually says is that "the deficit for fiscal 2015 is the lowest since 2007".  What that means is that the FY 2015 deficit is better than since 2007 and it's still worse than it was in 2007 --which was right before the Crisis.   The title's wrong to say "Lower than Before" because that contradicts what the article says.