There are four important facts about government finances that aren't widely understood by the public, explains former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder. These are:

• "In 2010, deficit hawks Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson said the federal government needed to cut about $4 trillion from cumulative deficits over 10 years," Blinder writes in The Wall Street Journal. "Since then, a series of hotly contested budget agreements has reduced that deficit by — about $4 trillion," he says.

• "Government spending cuts and tax increases are a drag on economic growth here, just as they are in Europe."

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• Social Security now promises more benefits than can be paid for with expected payroll tax receipts, Blinder acknowledges. "But a few modest nips and tucks, such as raising the normal retirement age and the maximum taxable earnings a bit, would suffice to restore balance, and virtually none of them requires tax increases or benefit cuts over the next decade."

• The entire long-term budget problem basically stems from the projected explosion of healthcare costs, Blinder notes.

If the public grasped all this better, "maybe Congress would stop playing games ... and get on with the job of fixing our economy," he writes.

Meanwhile, some experts were heartened by the 32 percent drop in the budget deficit during the first seven months of fiscal 2013 — October 2012 through April — from the same period a year earlier.

"The deficit isn't really an issue for the next four or five years. It's clearly going to be moving down," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist for High-Frequency Economics, tells Bloomberg.

Editor's Note: Use This Single Loophole to Pay Zero Taxes in 2013