Together with the deficit reduction i signed into law this past year, this budget will cut the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. this will put the country on a course to a level of deficits below 3 percent of gdp by the end of the decade, and will also allow us to stabilize the federal debt relative to the size of the economy. —president barack obama, 2012 budget message of the president what does it mean to measure a government's deficit "relative to the size of the economy"? a. to compare the size of the deficit to productivity b. to compare the size of the deficit to the unemployment rate c. to measure the deficit as a percentage of the economy or gdp d. to measure the deficit as a percentage of tax revenues