America’s high and rising debt matters because it threatens our economic future. The coronavirus pandemic rapidly accelerated our fiscal challenges, but we were already on an unsustainable path, with structural drivers that existed long before the pandemic. Putting our nation on a better fiscal path will help ensure a stronger and more resilient economy for the future. The $31 trillion gross federal debt includes debt held by the public as well as debt held by federal trust funds and other government accounts. In very basic terms, this can be thought of as debt that the government owes to others plus debt that it owes to itself.

Want to share this image on your site? Copy and paste the embed code below:

<img src="https://www.pgpf.org/sites/default/files/infographic-31-trillion-national-debt_0.jpg" width="620" alt="The National Debt is now more than $31 trillion. What does that mean?">
<a href="https://www.pgpf.org/sites/default/files/infographic-31-trillion-national-debt_0.pdf">
</a><p><strong>The National Debt Is Now More than $31 trillion. What Does That Mean?</strong>, courtesy of <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/infographic/the-national-debt-is-now-more-than-31-trillion-what-does-that-mean">Peter G. Peterson Foundation</a></p>