U.S. debt officially tops $13 trillion, first time in history

Washington - The United States national debt officially went over the $13 trillion mark, which is one of the largest in the world at the present time. How much can $13 trillion buy?

In 2004, United States Vice President Dick Cheney emphatically stated during a cabinet meeting that “deficits don’t matter.” But do debts and deficits really matter? In an interview with Jan Helfeld, Congressman Pete Stark explained that the more debt you are in, the wealthier you are. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department announced that the national debt has risen above $13 trillion, which is a record high, and is still climbing, according to the Washington Independent. The national debt has doubled within the last ten years and now is more than 90 per cent of the annual gross domestic product. The country’s GDP is approximately $14.6 trillion. The U.S. maintains a national debt of $13,033,645,753,564, which equals to about $42,124 per citizen and $118,215 per taxpayer, according to Debt Clock. The total interest on the debt stands at 1.9 trillion, which equals to approximately more than $6,000 per citizen. However, if you add the debt from household, business, federal, state and local governments and financial institutions then the nation’s debt total would tally up at more than $55.7 trillion. The U.S. also has $108 trillion worth of unfunded liabilities and expenditures, which also adds up to $352,129 per citizen. CBS News reports that legislation was passed to raise the debt ceiling to just more than $14 trillion but it is expected to be raised by next year. In 1840, the U.S. debt stood at $3,573,343.82