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posted by martyb on Friday September 15 2017, @12:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the mucha-moolah dept.

The U.S. national debt reached $20 trillion for the first time ever last Friday after President Trump signed a bipartisan bill temporarily raising the nation's debt limit for three months.

While at Camp David, Mr. Trump, with the stroke of his presidential pen, increased the statutory debt last Friday by approximately $318 billion, according to the Treasury Department. Before the bill's completion, the U.S. debt was sitting around $19.84 trillion.

The legislation allowed the Treasury Department to start borrowing again immediately after several months of using "extraordinary measures" to avoid a financial default. The bill passed last Thursday 80-17 in the Senate and in the House 316-90 on Friday. Around $15 billion in emergency funding for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts was attached to the borrowing measure.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/national-debt-hits-historic-20-trillion-mark/

[That works out to just shy of $62,000 per American. --Ed.]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @07:15PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @07:15PM (#568637)

    ...anyone who saved becomes poorer.

  • (Score: 2) by qzm on Saturday September 16 2017, @02:07AM

    by qzm (3260) on Saturday September 16 2017, @02:07AM (#568805)

    And exactly this is what governments in many parts are working hard to do right now.
    Generally referred to as 'the rape of the middle class'
    Make it apparent (by pouring billions of funny-money in to markets) that anyone who is not 'investing' every dollar they can borrow is an idiot to strip all real assets from the bulk of the middle class and throw it in to the pot to keep the wheels oiled.

    Make sure to ignore the endgame.. just pretend it can continue forever.