United States Public Debt

            The U.S. public debt, commonly called the national debt, gross federal debt or U.S government debt, is the amount of money owed by the United States federal government to creditors who hold U.S. Debt Instruments. As of December 19, 2007, the total U.S. federal debt held by the public was roughly $5 trillion. This does not include the money owed by states, corporations, or individuals, nor does it include the money owed to Social Security beneficiaries in the future. If intragovernment debt obligations are included, the debt figure rises to roughly $9 trillion. If unfunded Medicaid, Social Security, etc. promises are added, this figure rises dramatically to a total of $59.1 trillion.

It is important to differentiate between public debt and external debt. Public debt is the amount owed by the government to its creditors, whether they are nationals or foreigners. External debt is the debt of all sectors of the economy (public and private), owed to foreigners. In the U.S., foreign ownership of the public debt is a significant part of the nation's external debt The Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the United States Treasury Department, calculates the amount of money owed by the national government on a daily basis.

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