If you're struggling to pay your bills because of inflation there's an old white man living in the White House you might wanna thank.
The US national debt has now exceeded $30 trillion, a new record, according to the Treasury Department.
The national debt is now about double China’s entire gross domestic product.
The sobering milestone comes after the federal government spent trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy and lessen the economic blow that came with the pandemic.
The country’s debt has increased by a whopping $7 billion since the end of 2019, just before the pandemic took hold.
Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group that raises awareness about debt, said, "The milestone of $30 trillion in debt should be a giant red flag for all of us about America’s future economic health, generational equity, and role in the world."
“Our high and rising debt makes us less prepared for the next pandemic, less secure against future adversaries, less resilient to the changing climate, and less able to build the strong and inclusive economy that we all want for the next generation,” he said.
Most of the trillions of dollars that Congress spent sending out three stimulus checks to people, propping up businesses, and providing jobless benefits during the worst of the pandemic was financed through borrowing rather than being offset through revenues — a fact that raised the national debt to the $30 trillion mark much sooner than expected.
The gross national debt burden, which represents the debt the government owes its creditors, is greater than the U.S. economy. The national debt differs from the federal debt held by the public, which represents only the amount of government bonds held by the public and not the money the government owes itself. That number is lower, at $23.5 trillion.