Foreword: The Deficit and the Debt
Meeting America's Fiscal Challenges
On January 14, 2010, the sum of the outstanding debt owed by the Federal Government was $12,258,545,028,915.24 (or $12.2 trillion, to be less exact). The debt stood at $5.7 trillion when President George W. Bush took office and at $10.6 trillion when Barack Obama was inaugurated. Analysts predict that it will surpass $13 trillion by 2013. The national debt is the total amount of funds that the Federal Government has borrowed over the years and not repaid. It differs from the Federal deficit, which is the amount the government spends each year in excess of its revenues. The accumulation of…
