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Beat me to it. When a politician crows about how the deficit is going down, it just means that the budget for that particular year is slightly less over the actual income than previous years. But it's still over. The cumulative total of all the deficits is the debt.The deficit (labeled "US Federal Budget Deficit") is the 1-year difference between revenues and expenses. It is decreasing on the clock. The debt (labeled "US National Debt") is the cumulative total of all prior surpluses and deficits and costs of borrowing. It is still increasing on the clock.
The years we actually had a surplus we did not have enough of a surplus to even put a 1% dent in the total debt.