Grim Landmark': Fed Debt Exceeds $16 Trillion

The U.S. Treasury reported on Tuesday that as of Friday, Aug. 31, U.S. debt had officially exceeded $16 trillion.

"This is a grim landmark for the United States," said Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in a statement. "The gross debt of our federal government will, for the first time, surpass $16 trillion. That’s more government debt per person than Portugal, Italy, Spain, or Greece."

The Alabama senator's office released the following chart to help illustrate where we stand as a nation in terms of our debt:

Here are the official Treasury figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated). The government's fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30:

• Total public debt subject to limit Aug. 31: $15,976,711
• Statutory debt limit: $16,394,000
• Total public debt outstanding Aug. 31: $16,015,770
• Operating balance Aug. 31: $30,121
• Interest fiscal year 2012 through July: $215,183
• Interest same period 2011: $212,927
• Deficit fiscal year 2012 through July: $973,840
• Deficit same period 2011: $1,099,902

Courtesy Sen. Sessions' office, here are some other noteworthy bullet points:

• Federal debt at the end of the current fiscal year will stand at $16.2 trillion -- $6.2 trillion above where it was 4 years earlier.
• In the last 4 years, the debt increased by more than it did in the previous 17 years.
• In 2011, Harry Reid said it would be “foolish” to pass a budget.
• In 2012, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad announced that the Committee would be marking up a budget. Just days later, that markup was cancelled.
• Earlier this year, Reid announced, “We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year.”
• Since the Democrat Senate last passed a budget, the U.S. has spent $11.2 trillion and added $4.8 trillion in debt.

"We are on a dramatically unsustainable path," the senator's statement reads. "[T]his crisis cannot be ducked. By failing to outline any serious plan for the financial future of this country, Democrats who run the Senate and the White House have no basis on which to ask to be kept in their majority."

"The nation is in desperate need of strong executive leadership to end the financial chaos, restore discipline to government, and lead us to an economic renaissance," the statement adds.

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(H/T: CNS News). The AP contributed to this report. This story has been updated.