United States National Debt Reaches 40 Trillion Dollars

The national debt of the United States has reached 40 trillion dollars. This figure represents a vast escalation in federal borrowing since 1981, when the national debt first surpassed the 1 trillion dollar mark.

To illustrate the scale of the current debt, observers have referenced a historical comparison used by Ronald Reagan. In 1981, Reagan described a trillion dollars as a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high. At the current 40 trillion dollar level, that same stack of bills would reach 2,680 miles high.