Treasury Says US Debt Now More Than $37 Trillion

The United States’ national debt has passed $37 trillion, the Treasury Department announced on Aug. 12. The news came out with the Treasury’s latest report of the nation’s daily finances, showing $37,004,818,000,000 of total outstanding public debt divided into roughly $29.6 trillion in debt held by the public and roughly $7.4 trillion in intragovernmental holdings. This new number, a record high, sits short of the current $41.1 trillion debt limit set on July 4. However, that number appeared to have been reached sooner than pre-pandemic projections predicted, with the Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections forecasting the gross debt to surpass $37 trillion after fiscal year 2030. The more rapid increase appeared to be due to the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which featured the shutdown of much of the national economy, requiring the federal government under President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden to borrow more money to stabilize and ensure a recovery....