The overall figure is approaching $34 trillion, according to the Treasury<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US national debt has continued to mount, jumping by $2.6 trillion in the six months through December to reach $33.8 trillion, according to the Treasury Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Treasury indicated that factors such as tax cuts, stimulus programs, increased government spending, and decreased tax revenues have been driving up debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe national debt just exceeded $100,000 per citizen,\u201d Republican Congressman John James said last week. \u201cThis should send a message to the White House that this reckless federal spending is at a breaking point.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest fiscal data showed that as of November 2023, it cost $169 billion for the US to maintain the debt, which equates to 16% of total federal spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interest payments on the national debt are estimated to have surged above $1 trillion on an annualized basis as of the end of October, according to Bloomberg calculations<\/a> based on US Treasury data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Bank of America (BoA), public debt could surge by $20 trillion over the next decade. It is likely to grow by $5.2 billion daily for the next ten years, which would put it at around $54 trillion by 2033, BoA warned last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US exceeded its debt ceiling, which was legally set at $31.4 trillion, in January 2023. After months of warnings of a potentially disastrous default from the Treasury, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan debt bill in June that allowed the limit to be lifted until January 2025. This effectively permitted the government to continue unlimited borrowing through next year. Debt spiked to $32 trillion less than two weeks after the bill was approved, and has been piling up ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation has caused major international credit ratings agencies Fitch and Moody\u2019s to cut their outlooks for the US this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n