The U.S. national debt has set a new landmark by passing the $15 trillion mark, the U.S. Treasury Department said late on Wednesday.
Treasury figures showed that the U.S. public debt reached $15.03 trillion as of November 15, 2011 compared with $14.9 trillion registered as of September this year.
The U.S. public debt has grown steadily since August 2 when Congress broke a three-month debt talks stalemate and agreed to raise the country's official debt ceiling from $14.3 trillion to $15.194 trillion.
The critical $15 trillion mark was hit as a joint panel of Republican and Democratic congressmen charged with the task of agreeing on at least $1.2 trillion deficit reduction appeared deadlocked before their deadline next Wednesday.
The U.S. budget deficit hit $64.5 billion early in the fall, or 46.4 percent more compared with the same period last year.
U.S. President Barack Obama inherited a national debt of $10.6 trillion from the George W. Bush administration. Experts say the U.S. national debt may soon hit 100 percent of the country's GDP, which is estimated at $15.2 trillion.
