Debt to the penny, the truth about the national debt and when it was accumulated

In the coming weeks and months you are going to hear a great deal about spending, adding to the deficit and the national debt.

You need to know the facts because there will be a lot of creative accounting going on. What is the base line, what period of time are we talking about?

One thing is certain, the U.S. is over $15 trillion in debt and it goes up every day. Over ten trillion of that is owned to the public, the balance is intra governmental like the Social Security trust bonds.

For example Current debt as of 05/24/2012

Debt Held by the Public: $10,950,490,306,884.60
Intra governmental Holdings: $4,761,956,061,359.05
Total Public Debt Outstanding: $15,712,446,368,243.65

For the status of the national debt on any day or over a period of time go to this Treasury Department website and do your own calculation. If it matters to you, you can easily calculate how much Bush added to debt in his eight years and how much Obama has added in his three and a half.