US Public Debt Passes $15 Trillion For First Time

According to the Bureau of the Public Debt of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the United States now has a total outstanding public debt load of $15,033,607,255,920.32.

That's $15.03 trillion.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population of the United States to be 312,621,257. This means that every man, woman and child in the United States currently owes $48,076 as their share of the national public debt load.

When President Barack Obama took office on January 20th, 2009, the total public debt outstanding for the country was a little over $10.6 trillion. This means that approximately $4.4 trillion in new debt has been added since the start of Obama's first term.

When George W. Bush first took office on January 20th, 2001, the United States owed nearly $5.73 trillion. This means that nearly $10 TRILLION in new debt has been added between January 20th, 2001 and November 16th, 2011.

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By somewhere around 2020, the United States is expected to have a national debt load of approximately $20 trillion.

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The last time that the United States posted a surplus? 2001.

Any guesses as to when the country will post a green year once again?

Source: TreasuryDirect.gov

Source: Census.gov

Filed under: General Knowledge