US national debt sees largest increase in history
The US national debt has increased by nearly $340 billion in one day, the largest daily increase in its history, according to data by US Treasury Department.
The national debt surged by $339.1 billion on Tuesday, increasing the total amount to $18.5 trillion, only one day after President Barack Obama signed a two-year budget deal
Before the new deal's implementation which suspends the debt limit, the Treasury Department was taking extraordinary measures to artificially hold the total US debt under the limit imposed by Congress. This meant that, on paper, the national debt was frozen at $18.1 trillion since March.
During this period, the department deferred payments to pension funds and borrowed from reserve accounts in order prevent government shutdown.
However, those measures were running out before Obama signed the suspension into law and allowed the US government to borrow more from the resources approved by Congress, averting a potential debt crisis.
The previous records for one-day increases in the national debt all occurred under similar circumstances.
In October 2013, the national debt increased by $328.2 billion after the government shutdown ended and a $238.3 billion increase the day after Obama signed the Budget Control Act into law on August 2, 2011.
The Treasury Department data also showed that the debt rose again by $40 billion on Wednesday.
The new budget deal is set to suspend the debt ceiling until March 16, 2017 and allow the Treasury Department to borrow another $1.5 trillion.
That would add to the current national debt of more than $18.15 trillion, raising the red ink to about $20 trillion.
The new budget, passed by the Senate on Friday, sets the 2016 discretionary spending at $1.067 trillion, about half of which is allocated to military spending. In 2017, the figure would slightly rise to $1.071 trillion.
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