Nov 23, 2024 (MENAFN via COMTEX) --
(MENAFN) The US national debt exceeded USD36 trillion for the initial time in the country's history on Friday as the federal government keeps accumulating loan at a record-setting speed.
Recent figures from the Treasury Department published Friday afternoon revealed that the gross national loan reached USD36,034,994,586,981.97.
The USD36 trillion debt milestone comes just months following the US eclipsed the USD35 trillion mark in late July 2024. The national loan has passed other trillion-dollar milestones in the previous year, as the USD34 trillion mark was hit in early January 2024 and the USD33 trillion threshold in September 2023. In comparison, the national loan soared nearly USD907 billion just four decades ago.
The US topping USD36 trillion in overall loan comes as the debt held by the public - a metric favored by economists that excludes debt held in intragovernmental accounts like the Social Security trust funds - is expected to hit 99 percent of the size of the U.S. gross domestic product this year.
"While USD36 trillion in gross debt is certainly sobering, what's even more concerning is the underlying fiscal challenges we face and the lack of seriousness with which our elected leaders are addressing them," Maya MacGuineas, leader of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), informed FOX Business.
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