Which deficit? The yearly deficit for 2006?

The debt as a percentage of the GDP increased in 2006, which means our deficit is still slightly higher than it needs to be. But it was only slightly higher. This would be fine, except for the following problems:

First, the national debt is already much too high because of spending in previous years. If our economy is doing well, we should be able to reduce our deficit as a percentage of GDP, yet that isn't happening. Second, the deficit in 2007 is expected to become huge again.

I should also point out that your statement is misleading. First, it seems to randomly choose a time period. In the 1970's, this deficit would not be as problematic because the overall national debt was low compared to our GDP.

Second, finding two different deficits and creating a ratio out of them is not a meaningful number. For example, if we had we compared the 2006 deficit to the 2000 surplus, we would see that the deficit in 2006 is more than infinity times greater than the deficit in 2000.