I CAN'T FIGURE OUT THEIR ANGLE...

Boehner and Ryan both stated that the deficit isn't such a huge problem after all but that claim contradicts their statements over the last 6 months or so.

UPDATE: Ok, now I understand:

Poll warns Republicans of focus on deficit
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 3/17/13 5:02 PM EDT
POLITICO

An outside group aligned with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has commissioned a report that warns conservatives against adopting an all-spending cuts, all-the-time message, and suggests that leaders on the right put a heavier emphasis on less abstract issues such as education and gas prices.

The poll, commissioned by the nonprofit YG Network and obtained by POLITICO, shows that even Americans concerned about deficits and debt are far more concerned with their own personal economic well-being.

The YG Network polling, conducted by the GOP firm McLaughlin & Associates, found that 38 percent of Americans name the “economy and jobs” as the issue of greatest importance to them. Twenty percent named “deficit and debt” as their top concern, and 16 percent pointed to health care.

“It is important to note that ‘economy and jobs’ is almost twice that of ‘deficit and debt,’” pollster John McLaughlin notes in the report.