United States Has Public Debt Load of Over $15 Trillion

As of this past Friday, the United States currently has a public debt load of $15.6 trillion ($15,624,347,610,476.87 to be exact).

This means that every man, woman and child in the United States currently owes $51,426 for their share of the U.S. public debt.

As many in the media have pointed out over the past few days, the United States has taken on $5 trillion in new debt since Barack Obama took office on January 20th, 2009. Here are the exact numbers:

Now - $15,624,347,610,476.87
January 20th, 2009 - $10,626,877,048,913.08

As you can see - almost exactly $5 trillion in debt has been added since January 20th, 2009. President Obama has been in office for roughly 1,200 days, which means that the United States has taken on roughly $4 billion/day in new debt during his time in the White House so far.

As you can see from the numbers listed above, the United States currently has 47.2% more debt than it did when President Obama took office. Through President George W. Bush's first 1,200 days in office, the United States saw its debt load rise by approximately 24.1% ($5.73 trillion to $7.14 trillion).

President Obama's detractors point to the $5 trillion figure as proof positive that he isn't fit to lead the country and hasn't done anything to bring the country back to solid financial footing. President Obama's supporters point out that the US economy was in full collapse mode when he took office, and that President George W. Bush's last budget ended producing a deficit of $1.416 trillion.

One thing is for sure - the nation's debt load will be a central issue in the upcoming Presidential election.

Source: TreasuryDirect.gov - The Debt To the Penny

Filed under: General Knowledge