The super short version:
Let’s say Sam gets $50 per year in allowance (revenue), but owes his Mom $100 in “debt” after two years. He accrued that debt by spending $100 per year. So, he spent $50 more per year (“yearly deficit”) than he made in allowance.
2 years * $50 yearly deficit = $100 debt.
As told by others:
More depth of the difference between debt and deficit: http://ptmoney.com/us-federal-debt-vs-deficit/
Even greater detail specifc to the US economy as it relates to taxes, social security, military spending etc:
http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalpolicy/p/US_Debt_Deficit.htm
The History of the US Debt
Breakdown of US Debt Over Time:
Here is a breakdown of debt accrued over 40 years:
http://www.skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-by-Presidental-Term.htm
Here is a picture snapshot from the site incase your feeling lazy:
Per Presidency Comparison:
This is the total debt accrued per president in a more condensed format:
I crossed checked it with the treasury data to make sure it was kosher – you can too: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm
Reflection:
The great thing abot history and numbers is it help remind us there is a difference between what rememebr and what really hapened.
If your going to base your opinions on these numbers and term, please know what they are, or else not only are you doing the country a diservice, but you are letting people use your naivety to control your feelings on an issue.
Opinion:
As you can see it isnt a question of president, the larger issue is that spending more than we make has been an issue without our country as a whole for a long time. Many of us complain about the economy in a warm room with a bed to sleep onand food in our stomach. (Of course many do not, and we need to fix that too), but we spend more than we should, and then hope someone will save us so we can do it again. That might be a better issue to reflect on then the unsubstantiated blame game.
Sean Shadmand 