US national debt tracker: See how much money the government owes in real time

The U.S. national debt is climbing at a rapid pace and has shown no signs of slowing down, despite the growing criticism of massive levels of government spending.

The national debt — which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — rose to $34,548,206,284,406.41 as of Friday afternoon, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department. That is down about $15 billion from the $34,563,348,818,204.50 figure reported the previous day.
By comparison, just four decades ago, the national debt hovered around $907 billion.

The outlook for the federal debt level is bleak, with economists increasingly sounding the alarm over the torrid pace of spending by Congress and the White House.