The US Government’s debt load topped the $15-trillion mark, as politicians in Congress continued to battle over how to cut spending.
Treasury figures showed the burden of federal borrowing on the shoulders of the American public reached $15,033,607,255,920.32 yesterday, up $55.8 billion from Tuesday.
That was roughly equal to 99 per cent of the size of the total US economy projected for 2011, a level normally seen as very unhealthy by economists.
Government debt has steadily climbed since August 2, when Congress broke a three-month deadlock and agreed to raise the country’s official debt ceiling from the then $14.3 trillion to $15.194 trillion.
Debt covered by the ceiling — slightly less than total public debt — has grown to $14.989 trillion since then, with the government spending some $1.40 for every dollar it takes in revenues.
The $15-trillion mark was hit as a joint Democrat-Republican panel in Congress, tasked to slash the government deficit that has driven borrowing so high, appeared deadlocked just over a week before their November 23 deadline.
If the deficit supercommittee cannot agree, Congress is required to itself automatically make sweeping cuts to the budget a year from now that could crunch the economy.