This column seeks to define our national debt problem and solicit innovative solutions to it. Deficit is defined as the amount the federal government spends, each year, over the amount it takes in. National debt is defined as all of the deficits added up minus the years when budget surplus was used to reduce the debt. This has only happened five times since 1969. Many articles analyze the U.S. national debt against the gross domestic product. A more direct comparison is the debt to the federal income and federal budget; the debt relative to the ability of the federal government to carry the debt or pay it back. The current national debt is $22 trillion.