The Difference between Deficit and Debt

Several Progressives are touting the 'fact' that President Obama has lowered the deficit to such a degree that he is the best President at showing fiscal restraint.

Deficit is the part of a yearly budget that is not funded, but the game is for the budget to ‘borrow’ from the SS Trust fund this year so that the deficit is lower. But this adds to the debt, which must be paid.
The whole point is the President and Congress are both playing with the facts; The budget is made up of mandatory items; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and discretionary items; Defense, HHS, Education, VA, State, Homeland Security, HUD, Energy, NASA, Justice, Transportation, Treasury, Interior and OMB. But PAYGO [Pay as you Go] has not applied to discretionary spending since 2002.

The best phrase I heard as analogy for this was, "that's like paying your mortgage with your credit card."

So outside of the posturing by both sides, debt can be attributed to each President based on their spending, of course not counting the first 9 months they are in office because that is the previous president’s budget. Deficits can be covered over by borrowing against the Social Security trust fund or other internal govt accounts, but debt stands out. The Debt shows the President’s priorities and his fiscal responsibility. The president's $6.103 trillion in 6 years has already passed BushII's $5.849 trillion over 8 years. So Bush is #2, but the President looks to kill that record, possibly doubling it. Our kids and grand kids will be paying for this. I do not think it was worth it.

Remember, every government expenditure is a tax