The national debt has hit a new milestone, surpassing $22 trillion for the first time ever.
The Treasury Department’s daily bank statement of sorts revealed on Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion, the Associated Press reported. On Jan. 20, 2017, the day Donald Trump first took office, the national debt sat at $19.95 trillion.
The debt has been climbing since then largely in part because of Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut in December 2017 and Congress’ decision last year to increase spending on both domestic and military programs.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that this year’s total deficit will be $897 billion — a 15.1% jump from last year’s imbalance of $779 billion. And, in the coming years, the CBO predicts that the deficit will keep rising, top $1 trillion annually beginning in 2022 and never drop below $1 trillion through 2029, according to the AP.
Most of that seemingly endless increase will come from mounting costs to fund Social Security and Medicare as the vast generation of baby boomers continue to retire.
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