Is the Pendulum Swinging Back?

The US national debt soared past 31 trillion for the first time in October. CNN pointed out Biden was most likely conflating the national debt and federal deficit, which was reduced in half between 2021 and 2022. However, even that is also misleading as the federal deficit was expected to fall in the fiscal years of 2021 and 2022 after record high pandemic relief spending in 2020.