They were probably referencing the last rounds of "quantitative easing" averaged to a year as absolute number.

Anyone even remotely acquainted with the graphs was well aware, that even a year ago it was at about the 12 trillion debt the U.S. held, which grew to 13-14 since then.

Much more interesting is the fact, that the graph was more or less stable the last century and now suddenly skyrockets with exponential proportions.

See chart for reference: http://www.michaelmatthews.com/images/US_National_Debt_Chart...

ps. That's about $44k debt per U.S. citizen: http://www.usdebtclock.org/

That graph would not look so alarming with a normal aspect ratio.

Or if it took GDP growth into account.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png