US debt tops $15 trillion mark

The US government''s debt load topped the $15 trillion mark Wednesday, as politicians in Congress continued to battle over how to cut spending. Treasury figures showed the burden of federal borrowing on the shoulders of the American public reached $15,033,607,255,920.32, up $55.8 billion from Tuesday.
That was roughly equal to 99 percent of the size of the total US economy projected for 2011, a level normally seen as very unhealthy by economists. Government debt has steadily climbed since August 2, when Congress broke a three-month deadlock and agreed to raise the country''s official debt ceiling from the then-$14.3 trillion to $15.194 trillion.
Debt covered by the ceiling - slightly less than total public debt - has grown to $14.989 trillion since then, with the government spending some $1.40 for every dollar it takes in revenues. The $15 trillion mark was hit as a joint Democrat-Republican panel in Congress, tasked to slash the government deficit that has driven borrowing so high, appeared deadlocked just over a week before their November 23 deadline. If the deficit supercommittee cannot agree, Congress is required to itself automatically make sweeping cuts to the budget a year from now that could crunch the economy.