Number: RL30520
Title: The National Debt: Who Bears Its Burden?
Authors: Marc Labonte and Gail E. Makinen, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: The United States has been free of a national debt for only two years, 1834 and 1835. In its first year, 1790, the country faced a debt of $75 million. From FY1998 to FY2001, the federal government ran budget surpluses. Since then, the budget has returned to deficit, and the debt had risen to $5 trillion by 2007. It rose to a high of 108.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of World War II; declined to a post-World War II low of 23.8% of GDP in 1974; and, then, rose to another high of 49.5% of GDP in 1993.
Pages: 16
Date: February 28, 2008