The National debt surpasses $38 trillion

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The U.S. national debt surpassed another historic milestone as it topped $38 trillion for the first time this week, as the federal government continues to rack up debt at a record-setting pace.

New data from the Treasury Department released on Wednesday showed that the gross national debt reached $38,019,813,354,700.26 as of Oct. 21.

The $38 trillion milestone comes a little over two months after the U.S. national debt reached $37 trillion for the first time in mid-August, and less than a year after the $36 trillion threshold was breached last December.

America's debt has grown rapidly over the last decade as the population ages and enrollment in Social Security and Medicare rises. Another key driver of the surging debt is interest expenses incurred from servicing the federal debt, which have swelled due to higher interest rates put in place to curb inflation as well as the growth in the debt itself

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"If it seems like we are adding debt faster than ever, that's because we are. We passed $37 trillion just two months ago, and the pace we're on is twice as fast as the rate of growth since 2000," he added.

Peterson noted that the costs of servicing the national debt are rising, as they cost the U.S. about $4 trillion over the last decade and are estimated at $14 trillion in the next 10 years, adding that interest costs "crowd out important public and private investments in our future, harming the economy for every American."

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