WASHINGTON, US
The U.S. federal government's total public debt has surpassed 35 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time, as recorded at the end of last week, according to data released by the Treasury Department Monday.
The total public debt
outstanding climbed to 35 trillion dollars on Friday, according to the newly
released Daily Treasury Statement. The data is updated at the end of each
business day with data from the previous business day.
Just seven months ago, the
U.S. national debt surpassed 34 trillion dollars in late December 2023. Three
months before that, the United States reached a historic milestone by passing
33 trillion dollars.
"The borrowing just keeps
marching along, reckless and unyielding," said Maya MacGuineas, president
of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in a statement. "Yet
despite all the risks and warning signs, these alarm bells seem to be falling
on deaf ears."
"We are going to have to
get serious about the debt, and soon. Election years cannot be an exception for
trying to prevent completely foreseeable dangers -- and the debt is one of the
major dangers we are facing," said MacGuineas.
According to the Peter G.
Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization focused on addressing U.S.
long-term fiscal challenges, the national debt of 35.001 trillion dollars
translates to 103,945 dollars of debt per person in the United States.
"Our deficits are caused
mainly by predictable structural factors: our aging baby-boom generation,
rising healthcare costs, and a tax system that does not bring in enough money
to pay for what the government has promised its citizens," the foundation
said.
Desmond Lachman, a senior
fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former official at the
International Monetary Fund, told Xinhua earlier that "there can be no
question that the U.S. budget deficit is on an unsustainable path."
The "dangerous
trajectory" poses "serious questions for the dollar" and
inflation's long-run outlook, Lachman said.
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