Obama’s plan would reduce the debt from nearly 75 percent of GDP to 73 percent of GDP by 2022. Boehner’s offer gets the percentage to 72 percent, under the analysis of the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

This would fall short of the 65.5 percent debt-to-GDP ratio achieved by Obama’s debt commission, led by former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.

Neither plan reduces deficits enough to put the debt on a clear downward path in 2022, according to experts who say a debt-to-GDP ratio above 70 percent is generally considered in the danger zone for an eventual European-style debt crisis.

The debt-to-GDP ratio was below 50 percent between the 1950s and 2007, highlighting the enormous growth in the debt over the last few years.