I see that most sites do now make the distinction between national debt and deficit you are making.
But, when I studied econ in college and I learned some business accounting while trading for a living... I was taught debt is the total of money borrowed.
When doing the accounting in a review of a budget... a shortfall over any period of time is a deficit. It could be quarterly, yearly or lifetime... etc.
when you type deficit into google...
the amount by which something, especially a sum of money, is too small.
synonyms: shortfall, deficiency, shortage, debt, arrears; More
- an excess of expenditure or liabilities over income or assets in a given period.
"an annual operating deficit"
- (in sports) the amount or score by which a team or individual is losing.
"came back from a 3–0 deficit"
An entity could have a big deficit. Outlaying more than it was taking in.... but that deficit is not the same as debt. A company could make up for the deficit with cash reserves.
So it could have a big deficit in its operations but not a big debt.
It would only have a big debt if it borrowed the money to make up for the big deficit. The words deficit and debt frequently co exist but they are not the same thing.
So I propose we should be careful and make sure we distinguish between Yearly Deficit and overall longer term deficit.
Jem,the debt did go up under Obama,the deficit went down.
From your link.The 2009 deficit before Obama took office was 1.16 trillion.
"Before Obama took office, President Bush's last budget (FY 2009) created a deficit of $1.16 trillion."
2017,Obamas last budget, deficit around 441 billion
"FY 2017 - The deficit is projected to be $441 billion."