Great news! The national debt has not risen by $200 billion since the beginning of President Obama’s third year in office!

As of Thursday, 23 November 2012, the last day for which figures are available, the national debt stood at $15,435,694,556,033.29, and that’s only $199,422,676,240.51 higher than it was on 20 January 2012, the beginning of the third year of Mr Obama’s term.

And the national debt is still $290,282,803,488.23 lower than the amount it would have to be to match the amount added under President Bush.

Assuming that the additions to the national debt continue at the same rate as they have since the beginning of President Obama’s third year in office, he will have tied President Bush’s national debt addition — which took him eight years to accomplish, it should be noted — on 13 April 2012. I was snarkily hoping he’d tie the record on April 15^th, income tax day, but 15 April 2012 falls on a Sunday this year, and income taxes are now due on April 16^th.

Still, if the debt will manage to accumulate just slightly less rapidly, maybe President Obama can hit that number on the 16^th! That should give him a goal for which to strive.