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Federal Debt Has Already Grown $700B in FY12; $40 Per Day Per Full-Time Worker
By Terence P. Jeffrey
March 8, 2012 

(CNSNews.com) - So far in fiscal 2012--which began on Oct. 1--the federal government has borrowed more than $700 billion, according to the official debt numbers posted by the U.S. Treasury. 

That means that since Oct. 1, the debt has been increasing at a pace of approximately $40 per day per each full-time worker in the United States. 

The federal debt is growing at a faster clip this fiscal year than it did in either of the two previous fiscal years that began during the presidential term of Barack Obama. At the beginning of those two fiscal years, however, Obama was working with a Democratic-majority Congress. 

This fiscal year is the first one during Obama’s term to start after the Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections. 

Thus, with a Democratic president in the White House and a Republican speaker in the House federal borrowing has accelerated rather than decelerated. 

Last August, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) reached an agreement to lift the legal limit on the federal debt by as much as $2.4 trillion. 

As of the close of business on March 5, the debt topped $700 billion for the first time in this fiscal year--hitting $701.643 billion. Fiscal 2012 will not end until Sept. 30—almost seven months from now. 

The day after hitting the $700 billion mark for the fiscal year, the debt continued its steady climb, hitting $708.683 billion for the fiscal year as of the close of business on March 6. 

That equals about $6,344 in new debt this year alone for each of the approximately 111,714,000 full-time workers (that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated there were in the United States as of 2010). 

So far this year, the debt is increasing by approximately $4.485 billion per day—or about $40 per day for each full-time worker. 

As of March 6 in fiscal year 2011—which began on Oct. 1, 2010, with the Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress--the debt had only grown by $621.004 billion. 

As of March 6 in fiscal year 2010—which began on Oct. 1, 2009, with Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress—the debt had grown by $634.874. 

As of March 6 in fiscal year 2009—which began on Oct. 1, 2008, when Republican President George W. Bush was still in office and Democrats controlled Congress—the debt had grown by $926.854 billion. 

In that fiscal year, the Democrat-controlled Congress enacted the $700 billion TARP bank bailout legislation that was signed by President George W. Bush and also what was then estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be a $787 billion stimulus package that was signed by President Barack Obama. 

As of March 6 in fiscal 2008, the debt had grown by $387.369 billion and as of March 6 fiscal 2007, it had grown by $312.157 billion 

Prior to fiscal 2008--when the debt grew by $1.017071 over the course of the full year--the debt had never grown by more than $700 billion in any full fiscal year in the history of the United States. 

In 2012, it has hit that mark just 158 days into the fiscal year. 

Because this is a leap year, when February has 29 rather than 28 days, Congress and the administration had an extra day over the previous three years to add debt before March 6. 

The full national debt is now $15,499,023,629,682.44. That equals approximately $138,738 for every full-time worker in the United States. 

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