U.S. Debt Surpasses $16 Trillion

The U.S. national debt surpassed $16 trillion on Tuesday as the Democratic National Convention convened. 

When President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the country’s debt was under $10 trillion, which means under Obama the country’s debt has increased by $6 trillion — or 60 percent. 

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said this is a “grim landmark for the United States,” and the government will have more debt per person than Portugal, Italy, Spain, or Greece.

“By failing to outline any serious plan for the financial future of this country, Democrats who run the Senate and the White House have no basis on which to ask to be kept in their majority,” Sessions said. “The nation is in desperate need of strong executive leadership to end the financial chaos, restore discipline to government, and lead us to an economic renaissance.”

Sessions said the country was on “a dramatically unsustainable path,” and Washington, by doing things like mailing “billions of dollars of tax credits to illegal aliens” in the midst of this debt crisis, was “disconnected from reality.” 

“Yet the President seems strangely unconcerned,” Sessions said. “His budget, which received zero votes in the House or Senate, would add another $66,000 in debt for every American household.”

Under Obama’s policies, the federal debt is projected to increase to $25.4 trillion by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, the Democrat-controlled Senate and Obama have not produced a budget in 1,224 days despite being required to do so by law.