$17,024,169,000,000
In about four years our National Debt has gone from just under $12 trillion to just over $17 trillion dollars. The chart below shows our debt increase from 1960 to 2010 and on this scale the recent $5,000,000,000,000 dollar increase would reach about half way up this paragraph.
I've repeatedly heard arguments that our national debt hasn't grown as a percentage of our GDP. However, our external debt to GDP ratio is now 100% and growing exponentially.
What can be done?
For starters everyone who thinks entitlements are not the issue needs to read the 2013 Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustee Report that clearly and unequivocally states that all parts of Social Security will be broke by the year 2035.
Note a that "DI" Disability Insurance is broke by 2016 and "HI" Hospital Insurance goes broke before "OASI" Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is exhausted.
It's true that over half of our national debt is owed to our government but it's also true that those debts are coming due as Social Security needs to cash in more and more "bonds" to cover entitlement payments which are only going to further accelerate the increase in our national debt.
The solution is simple but painful - We as a nation have to stop spending more than we have.