U.S. NATIONAL DEBT TOPS $33 TRILLION FOR FIRST TIME

Tue 19 September 2023:

America’s gross national debt exceeded $33 trillion for the first time on Monday, the New York Times reported.

As the US Congress attempts to pass another temporary budget at the end of September to prevent a government shutdown when the 2023 fiscal year ends, the country’s debt has reached historic levels.

Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which works on addressing America’s long-term fiscal challenges, stated that while policymakers are caught up in short-term fiscal crises, the US national debt continues to increase by trillions of dollars.

Peterson explained that after the debt limit “showdown” in June, where the $32 trillion debt limit was breached, policymakers want the focus to shift from partisan battles that don’t address the real fiscal issues faced by Americans to addressing the actual problem, which is the debt itself.

Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate continue to be divided on a path forward to avoid the near-term problem of a government shutdown, and lawmakers have started pressing for leaders to begin focusing on a stopgap bill to keep the government operating past Sept. 30.

Republicans have been pushing for cuts as a condition of funding the government, blaming out-of-control spending for the country’s fiscal woes.

“This town is addicted to spending other people’s money,” Representative Eli Crane, Republican of Arizona, said on X, formerly Twitter. “Enough is enough.”

But the White House blamed Republicans on Monday for the bulging debt burden.

“The increase in debt over the last 20 years was overwhelmingly driven by the trillions spent on Republican tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and big corporations,” said Michael Kikukawa, a White House spokesman. “Congressional Republicans want to double down on trickle-down by extending President Trump’s tax cuts and repealing President Biden’s corporate tax reforms.”

A Treasury Department report last week showed that the deficit — the gap between what the United States spends and what it collects through taxes and other revenue — was $1.5 trillion for the first 11 months of the fiscal year, a 61 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

On January 19th, the US had reached its $31.4 trillion debt limit, and the US Treasury had started taking extraordinary measures to avoid exceeding the limit and a possible default.

After prolonged negotiations regarding the debt limit, an agreement was reached in Congress, and President Joe Biden signed a bill in June to increase the debt limit, preventing the country from defaulting.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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