The double-the-debt decade

President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, in a private ceremony inside the White House. As of that day, the total debt of the federal government was $16.43 trillion.

Last Tuesday, it climbed from $32.84 trillion to $32.89 trillion -- a little more than twice what it was on Obama’s second inauguration.

The first Congress of the United States convened…