National Debt Surpassed $18,000,000,000,000 on Black Friday

By Napp Nazworth, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Tourists from India photograph the National Debt Clock, which displays the current United States gross national debt and each American family's share, hanging on a wall next to an office for the Internal Revenue Service near Times Square in New York May 16, 2011. The Treasury Department said the nation had hit its .294 trillion debt limit – a milestone that has little practical impact beyond injecting a note of urgency into the debate over taxes and spending that has dominated Washington this year. | (Photo: Reuters/Chip East)

While many Americans were out buying Christmas presents on "Black Friday," the U.S. national debt surpassed $18 trillion.

According to the official numbers released by the U.S. Treasury Department, at the end of the workday on Friday, the total national debt was $18,005,549,328,561.45

According to usdebtclock.org, which maintains a rolling estimate of the national debt based upon the official numbers released by the U.S. Treasury Department, the current debt amounts to $56,369 for each U.S. citizen, or $153,729 for each U.S. taxpayer. Current federal tax revenue is about $3.1 trillion.

The national debt is now higher than the nation's gross domestic product, or the values of all goods and services produced, which is almost $17.2 trillion.

When President Barack Obama first took office, the national debt was $10.6 trillion. With debt accumulation currently averaging about $1.3 trillion, the debt could double during Obama's term.

The national debt does not take into account state and local government debt, or personal debt. It also does not take into account unfunded liabilities, or payments that have been promised for Social Security and Medicare without the revenue to pay for them under current policy.

Current national unfunded liabilities are over $115.7 trillion.

To get a better idea of how the current debt would compare to household debt, you can chop off the last eight digits. For a family making $30,000 per year, comparable debt would be $180,000 and $1,157,000 in unfunded liabilities.

Congress is currently working on a government spending bill in its "lame duck" session. A bill must be passed and signed by Obama by Dec. 12 to avoid a government shutdown.