National Debt Hits $3 Trillion for First Time, Treasury Says

The national debt on Monday totaled more than $3 trillion for the first time in history, the Treasury Department reported Tuesday.

That’s $3,000,000,000,000.

When the national debt reached $3 trillion, it meant that it would cost every man, woman and child in the nation $12,000 to pay it off.

“The debt subject to limit did go over $3 trillion on Monday,” said Peter Hollenbach, public affairs officer for the Treasury’s Bureau of Public Debt.

The actual level of public debt subject to statutory limit at the end of the day Monday was $3.023 trillion. That’s just $99.59 billion under the statutory limit of $3.123 trillion. Congress enacted the current debt limit last November.

The debt reached $1 billion in 1916 during World War I, climbing to $278 billion at the end of World War II. It reached its first trillion on Oct. 1, 1981, and rose to $2 trillion on April 3, 1986.