BTW using your skewed numbers the 1997 debt is only 0.19% less than 2002.

The numbers aren't skewed. And yes, I know the difference is very slight and
acknowledged the same in my earlier post on this same issue.

Nice try yourself.
I used actual dollars, you used the CPI (Chained price index).
When comparing the percent of national debt to GDP the CPI is not used. To
compute the GDP/Debt ratio you must use actual dollars

According to whom?

The Bureau of Economic Analysis report doesn't seem to furnish us with sets of
figures from which to pick and choose. I simply used the figure the government
reported. Where did you get your figure?