O.K., thanks. I got my figures from the Congressional Budget Office
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1821&sequence=0#table1
So am I reading the chart wrong? It’s obviously not the same figures as yours.
No, it’s not really wrong, but it’s only part of the picture. The debt held by the public is the total of all the T-Bills, notes, bonds, etc on the market. There is also intragovernmental debt, which are transfers from one government account to another, which are used for Social Security, Medicare, civil service retirement, etc.
I am no expert in these transfers, but it bascially means that the government is loaning itself money. If you want more information, I get it at the office on Monday.
Here is a good page about the borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund:
Here is an interesting graph of the national debt as a percent of GDP over time. Pretty interesting, if not surprising, correlations with who was President too since the Republicans first adopted the “cut taxes and spend” policies under Reagan.
It’s interesting that your link also says that the debt decreased under Clinton. I guess it depends who’s doing the calculations.