MINNEAPOLIS — If you wince when look at your monthly credit card bill, you might not believe what the U.S. government has racked up.
The national debt now tops more than $34 trillion. That’s a new record difficult to comprehend — and there are no signs of slowing it down.
How did the debt get so high? And will it need to be paid off?
Well, that goal might be wishful thinking.
The debt is one of the rare times people have a chance to use the word “trillion” in a sentence without exaggerating some number.
It stands at $34,009,690,055,595 as of Jan. 9. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is worth more than $241 billion. You’d need at least 140 of him to equal the debt.
“The first thing is about one-fourth to one-third of it doesn’t count,” said Christopher Phelan, an economics professor at the University of Minnesota. “It’s debt that’s held by another part of the government. So, it would be like the wife owing the husband…
