That was roughly equal to 99 percent of the size of the total US economy projected for 2011, a level normally seen as very unhealthy by economists. Government debt has steadily climbed since August 2, when Congress broke a three-month deadlock and agreed to raise the country's official debt ceiling from the then-$14.3 trillion to $15.194 trillion.
Debt covered by the ceiling - slightly less than total public debt - has grown to $14.989 trillion since then, with the government spending some $1.40 for every dollar it takes in revenues. The $15 trillion mark was hit as a joint Democrat-Republican panel in Congress, tasked to slash the government deficit that has driven borrowing so high, appeared deadlocked just over a week before their November 23 deadline. If the deficit supercommittee cannot agree, Congress is required to itself automatically make sweeping cuts to the budget a year from now that could crunch the economy.