Another minute older and what do I get? One million dollars deeper in debt. The U.S. National Debt is expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.→[More:]"The problem is going forward," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard and Poors, a major credit-rating agency.

"Our estimate is that the national debt will hit 350 percent of the GDP by 2050 under unchanged policy. Something has to change, because if you look at what's going to happen to expenditures for entitlement programs after us baby boomers start to retire, at the current tax rates, it doesn't work," Wyss said.