Changes

[[File:Federal Debt graphic PD WC.jpg|thumb|280px|Components of Federal Debt As Percentage of GDP FY1980-FY2007]]

[[File:Federal Debt graphic PD WC.jpg|thumb|280px|Components of Federal Debt As Percentage of GDP FY1980-FY2007]]

There are two components to the [[national debt]]: the debt held by the public, and intra-governmental debt. The former is defined as the debt held by any individual or entity that is not the federal government, such as a mutual fund, individual investor, foreign government, or a municipal government.<ref name="concordcoalition.org">http://www.concordcoalition.org/issue-briefs/2011/0708/understanding-federal-debt-limit</ref> Intra-governmental debt is debt the government owes itself, such as the Social Security Trust Funds, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.<ref name="concordcoalition.org"/>  

There are two components to the [[national debt]]: the debt held by the public, and intra-governmental debt. The former is defined as the debt held by any individual or entity that is not the federal government, such as a mutual fund, individual investor, foreign government, or a municipal government.<ref name="concordcoalition.org">http://www.concordcoalition.org/issue-briefs/2011/0708/understanding-federal-debt-limit</ref> Intra-governmental debt is debt the government owes itself, such as the Social Security Trust Funds, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.<ref name="concordcoalition.org"/> The [[Thrift Savings Plan]], the Federal Government's version of a 401(k) plan for employees, also holds special "G Fund" debt instruments; whenever the ceiling is reached without an increase, it is suspended from obtaining more of those instruments, but once a new ceiling is in place, it must then purchase them and pay interest in the interim.

Foreign governments, especially communist [[China]], liberal institutional investors, insurance companies, and domestic governmental entities hold the vast majority of the US debt.  Very little of it is owned by [[grassroots]] [[American]] investors.<ref>https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/09/the-federal-government-has-borrowed-trillions-but-who-owns-all-that-debt</ref>

Foreign governments, especially communist [[China]], liberal institutional investors, insurance companies, and domestic governmental entities hold the vast majority of the US debt.  Very little of it is owned by [[grassroots]] [[American]] investors.<ref>https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/09/the-federal-government-has-borrowed-trillions-but-who-owns-all-that-debt</ref>