The daily business briefing: February 2, 2022

The national debt surpasses $30 trillion for the first time, 4.3 million people left their jobs in December, and more

The U.S. Department of Treasury
The U.S. Department of Treasury
(Image credit: STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

1. National debt rises above $30 trillion

The U.S. national debt surpassed $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department. The coronavirus pandemic has fueled a $7 trillion increase since the end of 2019. The U.S. government owes more than $6 trillion of the debt to itself through government trust funds, but nearly $8 trillion of the total is owed to Japan, China, and other foreign creditors. Deficit concerns were a factor in stalling negotiations over President Biden's $2 trillion Build Back Better proposal, which sought to expand the social safety net and increase spending to fight climate change. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), one of two Democratic moderates who kept Biden's package from clearing the evenly divided Senate, said one reason he couldn't back the bill was that it would increase the nation's "staggering debt."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.