National Debt Up $574 Billion

The U.S. national debt increased by more than $574 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, a $20 billion increase over the previous year, according to figures from the Department of Treasury.

The Bureau of Public Debt reported that the national debt was $8.506 trillion as of September 29, the last business day of the fiscal year. The government had ended the previous year at $7.932 trillion, an increase of $553 billion over the year ending September 30, 2004.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that the national debt has increased by more than $500 billion and fifth that the increase was more than $400 billion. The last time the national debt increase was under $100 billion was in 2000 when Bill Clinton was President and the debt increased by only $17 billion.

One unusual note about the 2000 increase was that in the two weeks prior to the end of the fiscal year and the two weeks after the end of the fiscal year, the national debt ranged from a decrease of $12 billion from the previous year to an increase of $6 billion. Only on the last day of the year did the debt increase reach $17 billion.

The administration and the press, such as the Washington Post, are reporting that the federal deficit "fell" to a four-year low in the budget year that just ended at $247.7 billion.

The Post did report that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the deficit for the current budget year will rise to $286 billion. Over the next decade, the office forecasts that the deficit will total $1.76 trillion.

One of the reason the administration reported lower numbers is that they were able to use Social Security to mask the deficit.