US national debt hits $13 trillion

US debt has reached 13 trillion dollars for the first time in history, the Treasury Department has said, stoking a political furor over government spending. Amid vast government outlays designed to end the economic crisis, the debt reached a record 13,050,826,460,886.97 dollars on June 1, according to official figures. The debt has more than doubled in the last 10 years and now stands at just under 90 percent of annual gross domestic product. Against this backdrop, steaming the flow of red ink has become a contentious political issue in Washington, with Democrats and Republicans trading barbs about who is to blame. Earlier on Wednesday President Obama assailed Republicans for leaving him with the type of spiraling short-term deficits that fuel longer-term debt. The US government suffered its 19th consecutive month of budget deficit in April. But Republicans have lambasted Obama for expanding government spending since he came to office through a massive reform of healthcare. The debt has risen by around 2.4 trillion dollars since Obama took office in January 2009 and rose 4.9 trillion dollars in the eight years George W. Bush spent in office. Thirteen is certainly an unlucky number, especially for our children and grandchildren who will be left to dig out of trillions of dollars worth of debt, said Republican Senator Judd Gregg, a frequent critic of Obama's budget policies. This dangerous and unsustainable level of debt cannot continue without bankrupting our country, and I urge the majority to slow its explosion of spending and borrowing before it is too late. But economists are sharply divided over how quickly the US should move to rein in spending.