What does that mean, though, when he says "structural deficit" for decades, since the tax cuts, for example, were going to be expiring at the end of this year so you could actually get deficit savings from that?

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

What's driving it is Medicare, Medicaid, a structural gap that we have because of the Bush tax cuts over the last several years that left us spending a lot more than we were saving.

WHITEHOUSE: Online Town Hall

Waive the debt ceiling, cancel any immediate spending cuts or tax hikes, and put long-term structural reform aside till Washington is ready to provide leadership on long-term structural reform.

WSJ: Jenkins: Lost Decade, Revisited

The mandate obliges the government to work towards eliminating the structural deficit over a five-year period through a mixture of spending cuts and tax rises.

BBC: UK Politics

The biggest criticism of Mr Tremonti has nothing to do with tax cuts, and everything to do with a failure to push through measures to tackle the structural weaknesses of the Italian economy.

ECONOMIST: Italian politics

Our potential growth rate will be even slower, unemployment will be higher, and the structural hole in the public finances will be even larger, requiring the government to impose even greater tax rises and spending cuts to bring the national debt onto a downward path.

BBC: Inflation: Balancing the risks