– Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means released the following statement regarding the nation’s escalating national debt.

“On Friday, August 31st the national debt passed the $16 trillion mark,” Brady noted. “During less than four years under President Obama’s leadership, the national debt has increased an astonishing $5.4 trillion. And yet the President persists in pushing his agenda of more spending and higher taxes on job creators that is crippling our economy.” According to the Treasury Department the national debt reached $16,015,769,788,215.80 on Friday.

“Under President Obama’s stewardship, the national debt has grown by more than $4 billion per day, $170 million per hour, $2.8 million per minute and more than $47,000 per second,” Brady added.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to continue to bring that rate down and get our economy moving so that we can start to shrink the size of our debt relative to the economy.”