$13 Trillion Debt: Is it Time for an American Panic?

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Paul Taylor/Corbis

America’s 14-figure IOU is reaching dangerous heights.

Reuters reports that the hole in the United States’ piggybank widened to $13 trillion this week, a figure which equals almost 90 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. That rising number had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton connecting two political dots: U.S. debt and world influence.

In reference to the Obama administration’s Thursday unveiling of its national security doctrine, Clinton stressed that the nation has to shore up its issues at home to compete with powers abroad.

“We cannot sustain this level of deficit financing and debt without losing our influence, without being constrained in the tough decisions we have to make,” Clinton said.