The 2008 number is misleading as well since some of the cost of the Iraq War wasn't considered part of the national debt for some reason. When Obama took office

The 2008 number is misleading as well since some of the cost of the Iraq War wasn't considered part of the national debt for some reason. When Obama took office, a lot of the gimmicks to make the bad numbers look smaller were ended. So a lot of ignored dollars stopped being ignored even though, in reality, nothing really changed.