The Department of the Treasury and it's Bureau of the Public Debt seem to have a somewhat different perspective of numbers.
According to the Department of the Treasury, the national debt grew so:
Year Debt % increase
2005 $6,118,364 1.41
2004 $6,033,583 1.46
2003 $5,946,792 1.57
2002 $5,854,990 1.49
2001 $5,768,957 1.45
2000 $5,686,338 1.43
http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/fed-debt.shtml
But, it seems a little word got left out--these are all "estimates" from 2000 on
2005 (Estimate) $6,118,364 million
2004 (Estimate) $6,033,583 million
2003 (Estimate) $5,946,792 million
2002 (Estimate) $5,854,990 million
2001 (Estimate) $5,768,957 million
2000 (Estimate) $5,686,338 million
1999 $5,606,087 million
1998 $5,478,711 million
1997 $5,369,694 million
1996 $5,181,921 million
1995 $4,921,005 million
So, what's the real story? According to the Bureau:
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
date debt % increase
6/23/2005 $7,773,570,880,558.82 5.35
9/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32 8.78
9/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62 8.91
9/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16 7.25
9/28/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06 2.35
9/29/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86 0.32
9/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,615.43 2.35
9/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,897.62 2.09
9/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397.34 3.60
9/30/1996 $5,224,810,939,135.73 5.04
9/29/1995 $4,973,982,900,709.39 5.99
As you can see, while the rate of increase went from almost 6% to less than one half of one percent in the year 2000, after six months of 2005 it's increased more than 5% over last year. If it were to increase at the same rate for the rest of the year, it could reach 10%.