The grim milestone comes as Congress debates a new spending plan to avert the looming government shutdown.
The U.S. national debt exceeded $33 trillion for the first time ever this week, according to the Treasury Department, surpassing a critical milestone at a time when government spending is in the national spotlight.
By comparison, that figure hovered around $907 billion just four decades ago. The country has also added an additional $1 trillion to the national debt in just the past three months. "We are becoming numb to these huge numbers, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The historic debt level comes as lawmakers in Congress race to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month. A short-term funding measure has dominated the September agenda, but negotiations on Capitol Hill have faltered with just days until the government's fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. Republicans have tried to load their spending proposal with conservative policy agenda items, from provisions blocking abortion coverage to slashing defense packages for Ukraine.
Top lawmakers in both the House and Senate are now considering a stopgap funding package, a strategy often used to give Congress more time to negotiate a long-term agreement and keep government offices open in the meantime. But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing resistance from both Democrats and members of his own party in hopping on board with the temporary fix.
"Honestly, it's a pretty big mess," House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said at an event in Kentucky earlier this month.
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