National Debt Hits Record $31T

Higher interest rates could cost country another $1T
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2022 6:22 PM CDT
National Debt Hits Record $31T
The Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates to combat inflation.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The gross US national debt, which topped $30 trillion for the first time earlier this year, has now risen to more than $31 trillion, according to a Treasury Department report released Tuesday. The disclosure comes at what the New York Times calls an "inopportune time"—interest rates are rising, make it more expensive to borrow money and raising the cost of servicing the debt, which has ballooned to its current level from around $23 trillion at the end of 2019, just before the pandemic hit. "Too many people were complacent about our debt path in part because rates were so low," says Michael A. Peterson at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which promotes debt reduction.

In May, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that interest payments and other debt costs would cost the federal government around $8.1 trillion over the next decade. The Peterson foundation estimates higher rates will add at least another $1 trillion. The Office of Management and Budget said in August that the federal budget deficit will drop by a record $1.7 trillion this year, though analysts warn that the underlying "addiction" to debt remains, the AP reports. "When you increase government spending and money supply, you will pay the price later," says Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University. He predicts that high inflation will continue for the foreseeable future. (More national debt stories.)

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