Informed ReSource: The National Debt

The Center's volunteer staff is working to augment Informed ReSource to create and maintain an accurate resource, but we can't do it all alone.
To stay current, these Topic Pages need your help!
Please send us new links to add to these pages, your ideas for new Topic pages to create, and please tell us when our links have expired.
Thank you for your help in making this a better website!

The National Debt is the total amount of money that the US Government owes. Every year that the government spends more than it collects (from taxes, fines, fees, customs duties, property sales, and so on) it runs up a defecit. Each year's defecit adds to the total debt. Last year the Federal defecit totaled nearly $160 billion.
In addition to the yearly defecit, the government must pay interest on the money it has borrowed. For example, to spend that extra $160 billion last year, the government had to borrow $160 billion. The goernment does most of its borrowing in the form of Tresury Bills and Savings Bonds. Each year the government must pay interest on these outstanding bonds, further adding to the national debt. Interest payments alone consume 23% of the yearly Federal Budget.
The total of the principal (the raw amount borrowed) and the interest (which continually increases) owed by the US is currently more than 5 trillion dollars. Due to interest compounding, the total amount of the national debt increases by about ten thousand dollars per second.
Many groups are concerned that the growth of the national debt has been harmful to the economy and may even cause an economic collapse. Even if such dire preditions prove untrue, debt payments are expected to hinder the government's ability to meet other financial and serfvice obligations.

Topic Legislation
Debt and Budget Concerned Lobbying Groups

This page was last updated January 30, 1996

Topic Legislation

Debt and Budget Concerned Lobbying Groups