the work we do . '' That work happens in a simple one-story , brick building in Parkersburg , some 300 miles from Washington . The public debt offices landed there thanks to heavyweight home-state Sen. Robert Byrd . The bureau 's offices are tucked into a corner of town that 's easy to miss . A brown hill and train track sit on one side , parking lots for county offices on the other . The locale is still a surprise to some . `` Every now and then we get a comment , ` Where are you ? Parkersburg ? ' '' Saling says . The public debt building has become a number nerds ' paradise . Employees say they balance their checkbooks at least weekly , some daily . A big happy-face sign marks progress on a recent audit . A written goal is taped to a Nerf-sized football . And the security guards brag that someone brings in a cake about every other day . Inside , Saling 's office is pin-neat , but her computer screen is cramped . A full-screen photo of Saling 's 4 - and 5-year-old children is covered by dozens of
Parkersburg , West Virginia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- At nearly $ 12.1 trillion , the U.S. national debt has reached a size that is incomprehensible to most people and as intangible as the ' `` Big Bang '' or bipartisanship . But it is real in West Virginia , where a small , nearly anonymous group of government accountants calculate the public debt to the penny each day , living a mathematic nightmare and number cruncher 's dream . At a large desk in Parkersburg , Jaime Saling watches over roughly 6,500 pieces of data and trillions of dollars each day . Her title takes up a few characters itself : Saling is the debt accounting branch manager for the Bureau of Public Debt . She and a division of just 15 people quietly and relentlessly work to account for every penny of the national debt . It is tedious and potentially overwhelming work , but Saling acts as if she flies jet fighters . `` I get very excited , '' the petite and energetic Saling says , `` They call me a nerd , several times ; I think it 's because I get very excited about all