Federal Deficit and National Debt

Bakari Copeland

Richard Gormley 

TMGT 306-Hybrid

April 8, 2016

Federal Deficit and National Debt

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 budget deficit totaled $439 billion (2015). This information was according to the statement from the Treasury Department. In their opinion, even though this is almost 10 percent below the FY 2014 deficit and nearly 70 percent below the 2009 peak, the US still is on an unsustainable fiscal path. The chart below shows the changes in the Federal deficit from 2000 to 2015.

Figure 1: US Federal Deficit Fiscal Years 2000 to 2015 (Chantrill).

Today’s Federal Debt is about $19,243,725,556,000. The main culprit behind the rising deficits and debt is growing federal spending—especially among Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare (Boccia). The Gross Federal Debt is the gross amount of debt outstanding issued by the US Treasury. “Debt held by the public” and “debt held by federal government accounts” are components of Gross Federal Debt. At the end of FY 2015 the federal debt was $18.1 trillion. At the end of FY 2016 federal debt is budgeted to be $19.4 trillion. This gross outstanding federal debt issued by the United States Department of the Treasury since 1790 does not include the following: state and local debt; agency debt; unfunded liabilities of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Federal Debt per person is about $58,976.

The chart below shows the changes in the public debt from 2000 to 2015. The amount of debt has more than tripled over the last 15 years. At the end of FY 2016 the total government debt in the United States, including federal, state, and local, is expected to be $22.4 trillion.

Figure 2: Gross Public Debt Fiscal Years 2000 to 2015 (Chantrill).