The nominal value of the debt is not a good measure because it disregards the fact that the value of a single unit (the dollar) changes over time, and doesn't reflect the difficulty in paying it off (i.e. % of national GDP).

It's also a bit of apples-and-oranges when you compare the nominal debt of one country with another without looking at the differences in GDP between the countries, i.e. the size of each country's economy.

Because we can increase GDP (via public spending, yay!) and make our debt situation look like it's improving. Look, nominal total debt may not be perfect either, but saying Clinton reduced debt is factually wrong. In every year, we spent more than we had. Debt increased. They all do it.

The debt dollar is a horrible instrument that will not end well. We may be decades off, but it's gonna be ugly.

By the logic that we can pretend that debt went down, when it didn't?