(CNSNews.com) - The new spending deal that resigning House Speaker John Boehner has made with the Democratic congressional leadership and President Barack Obama will suspend the legal limit on the federal government’s debt until after Obama leaves office.
“Subsection 901(a) provides for the temporary suspension of the limit on public debt through March 15, 2017,” says the official summary of the bill.
Obama will leave office on Jan. 20, 2017, when the next president is inaugurated.
Since Obama took office, the total debt of the federal government has already increased by $7,525,761,885,381.30—rising from $10,626,877,048,913.08 on Jan. 20, 2009 to $18,152,638,934,294.38 on Oct. 23, 2015.
The portion of the debt held by the public—as opposed to the “intragovernmental debt” (or money the Treasury has borrowed out of government trust funds)—has more than doubled during Obama’s presidency.
On Jan. 20, 2009, the debt held by public (including bills, notes, bonds and other securities sold by the Treasury) was $6,307,310,739,681.66. As of Oct. 23, 2015, it was $13,035,394,315,866.20—an increase of $6,728,083,576,184.54 (or almost 107 percent).
The $7,525,761,885,381.30 that the total debt has increased so far during the Obama presidency equals $64,134.73 for each of the 117,343,000 households that were in the United States as of June.