” To be fair, the starting point for Obama should be 30 September 2009.
This was the end of fiscal year 2009 which began on 1 October 2008 during the Bush Administration.
The CBO projected in January 2009 that the deficit for FY 2009 would be over $1.2 trillion, and they were correct.
So Obama really inherited it.”
Since Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the debt has increased $5,349,641,980,231.06.
Since when does 5.4 trillion equal 1.2 trillion ?
You need to understand the difference between the budget deficit and the national debt.
The budget deficit is the difference between revenue and expenditures in a given year. For example, in FY 2009 the federal government took in $2.105 trillion of revenue and spent $3.518 trillion. So it had a $1.413 trillion budget deficit that year.
The national debt is the total amount that our federal government owes which is almost $16 trillion.