8 crazy facts about the national debt

The Washington Examiner reports:

The federal government will be $19.4 trillion in debt by the end of the year, according to estimates from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Almost 73 percent of the debt is owed to "the public," a vague term that includes any debt owed to people or institutions outside the federal government, including individuals, businesses and state, local or foreign governments. The rest is any debt or surpluses held by specific government accounts, such as the Social Security Trust Fund.

As of March, about $6.3 trillion of the federal debt was owed to foreign governments. About one-fifth of that, $1.3 trillion, is owed to China. Slightly less, $1.1 trillion, is owed to Japan.

Every other country is far behind, with Japan owing at least four times as much as the next largest lender, the Cayman Islands. Both China and Japan are owed slightly less now than they were a year ago, but the combined total of foreign-held debt has risen. From March 2015-March 2016, the amount of federal debt owed to foreign governments rose by $114 billion.

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