NEW ORLEANS — The United States National Debt is about $31.46 trillion. But what does that really mean, and who do we owe all that money to? First: this is nothing new. The United States has had ...

Over the past 75 years, the net interest paid by the federal government on our national debt has ballooned from $889 million in 1940 to an estimated $229.2 billion in 2015.

Here's how the United States' national debt has grown over the last decade. 2006: $8.5 trillion. In the chart below you can see how the debt has shifted, ...