US National Debt Hits $38 Trillion

"Reaching $38 trillion in debt during a government shutdown is the latest troubling sign that lawmakers are not meeting their basic fiscal duties," Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on fiscal policy, said in a statement.

"If it seems like we are adding debt faster than ever, that's because we are. We passed $37 trillion just two months ago, and the pace we're on is twice as fast as the rate of growth since 2000," he added.

Rising U.S. debt could also undermine investor confidence in the economy, David Kelly, chief global strategist with J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said in a report earlier this month.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and a prominent voice on the nation's fiscal policies, also expressed concern at the national debt topping $38 trillion.

"The reality is that we're becoming distressingly numb to our own dysfunction. We fail to pass budgets, we blow past deadlines, we ignore fiscal safeguards and we haggle over fractions of a budget while leaving the largest drivers untouched," she said in a statement. "Social Security and Medicare, for example, are just seven years from having their trust funds depleted — and you don't hear anything from our political leaders on how to avoid such a disaster."