For the first time in history, the national debt of the United States has surged over $34 trillion, according to the latest fiscal data published by the Department of the Treasury.
On Dec. 29, 2023, the U.S. national debt reached $34,001,493,655,565.38 after one day prior hitting $33,911,227,723,170. In just one day over the holidays, in other words, the national debt increased by a whopping nearly $100 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over the next 30 years, the U.S. national debt will nearly double. This means that in 2054, should the nation remain in existence that long, the national debt will reach or even exceed $68 trillion.
Even though the country has just entered a new year, there will be no resolutions for the nation's broken financial system. According to Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation financial firm, the U.S. national debt "remains on the same damaging and unsustainable path" as always.
"Following last year's debt ceiling deal, we quickly crossed $32 trillion in June, $33 trillion in September, and now we are soaring past $34 trillion," Peterson commented.
"Looking ahead, debt will continue to skyrocket as the Treasury expects to borrow nearly $1 trillion more by the end of March. Adding trillion after trillion in debt, year after year, should be a flashing red warning sign to any policymaker who cares about the future of our country."
(Related: Investors are taking notice that the dollar is on its last legs, which is why they are scooping up "safe haven" assets like gold and bonds.)
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How much debt can America handle?
As always seems to be the case, the ruling political party, in this case the Democrats, forged a last-minute deal with Republicans late last year to increase the debt ceiling in order to avoid a default at least through January 2025.
This default can-kicking action occurs fairly regularly as each new time the country gets close to the debt ceiling, the ruling uni-party votes in the 11th hour to up the debt ceiling.
It was initially expected that reaching the $34 trillion mark in national debt would not occur for a few more years yet. Because of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "pandemic," the $34 trillion threshold is said to have hit earlier than anticipated.
At the end of 2022, the national debt grew to roughly 97 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Under existing law, that figure is expected to balloon to 181 percent by the end of 2053, reaching a debt level that will far exceed anything previously seen.
"Though our level of debt is dangerous for both our economy and for national security, America just cannot stop borrowing," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).
The Biden White House is blaming Republicans for the astronomical rise in federal debt.
"This is the trickle-down debt – driven overwhelmingly by repeated Republican giveaways skewed to big corporations and the wealthy," commented Michael Kikukawa, White House assistant press secretary, in a statement to FOX Business.
With interest rates on the rise, the cost of servicing America's ever-rising national debt is also increasing. This has to do with the fact that as interest rates rise, the federal government's borrowing costs on its debt also increase in proportion.
Over the next three decades, interest payments on the national debt are projected to become the fastest-growing part of the federal budget, according to the CRFB.
"Payments are expected to triple from nearly $475 billion in fiscal year 2022 to a stunning $1.4 trillion in 2032," FOX Business further reported. "By 2053, the interest payments are projected to surge to $5.4 trillion."
How much longer will the U.S. financial system persist? Find out more at Collapse.news.
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