Watch the Federal Debt Rise, Moment by Moment. This Is the On-Budget Debt. The Off-Budget Debt Is Vastly Worse.
This is the on-budget debt, meaning the debt statistic the government prefers to report. It is deliberately misleading. The real debt is over ten times larger.
The unfunded liability of the U.S. government for Social Security and Medicare is $210 trillion.
For a detailed accounting of all U.S. debts -- public and private -- click here.
On October 20, 2005, the on-budget debt of the United States Government went over $8 trillion. This was an increase of well over $2 trillion since January, 2001.
In 2007, it went over $9 trillion.
In 2008, it went over $10.5 trillion
In 2009, it went over $11.7 trillion
Next milestone (Sept. 30, 2020): $24 trillion
When was the last year the Federal government ran a surplus? If you say "2001," you don't understand how the accounting game is played. The Federal government counted Social Security and Medicare tax revenues as providing a surplus, even though they were long-term debts. Read a detailed article of this deliberate accounting deception, 1998-2001, go here. This strategy no longer works well. Both programs are running deficits.
On the yearly growth of this debt, 1791-2018, see the official numbers here.
For any year, or range of years, use the Treasury's software here.
The following warning came in July 2007. David Walker, then the Comptroller General of the United States, appeared on CBS's Sixty Minutes, before the recession hit in December. In February, 2008, he announced his resignation. He left to head up a newly organized foundation designed to sound the same warning. Needless to say, no one in Washington has paid any attention.