The U.S. national debt topped $15 trillion for the first time last week, prompting an outcry from Republican lawmakers and underscoring the perilous financial state the nation is in.

Not only is the national debt at a historic high, its growth is accelerating at an astonishing pace.

In the past three years, from the beginning of 2009 until now, for example, the debt has jumped from $10.7 trillion to $15 trillion, or by $4.3 trillion, an average of about $1.4 trillion a year. In that three years alone, the national debt increased by 40 percent.

In the previous three years, from the beginning of 2006 to the end of 2008, the debt also chugged upward, though not as quickly. In that period, it spiked by 30 percent, growing from $8.2 trillion to $10.7 trillion.

Measured in presidential terms, President Barack Obama is on pace to compile a $5-trillion increase in his four-year term. During his last term, by comparison, President George W. Bush racked up a $3-trillion increase, as the national debt tracked from $7.6 trillion to $10.7 trillion.

Viewed from a longer perspective, the rate of growth in the national debt is more startling. During the past six years, from 2006 until now, the debt rose by 83 percent, from $8.2 trillion to $15 trillion. In the 10 years before that, from the beginning of 1996 to the end of 2005, the debt grew by just 64 percent, from $5 trillion to $8.2 trillion.

Johnson: Intergenerational theft

In summary, every man, woman and child's portion of the national debt is now $48,256, every taxpayer's share is $133,000, and, to Wisconsin's Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, that's unsustainable.

"(Last week), the federal government exceeded $15 trillion in publicly-held debt," Johnson said last Wednesday. "Washington's lust for spending and power jeopardizes the freedom and economic security of every citizen. By the time the president finishes his first term, he will have promoted spending policies that will have increased our debt by $5 trillion in a mere four years. Simply put, we are committing intergenerational theft. It is immoral and it needs to stop."

Johnson took square aim at the Obama administration, saying the president had promised during his campaign to enact a net reduction in federal spending and to cut the annual federal budget deficit in half.

"Instead, under his leadership, the United States has seen its first three annual deficits above $1 trillion," Johnson said. "Our skyrocketing debt burden is not just bad luck; it is the predictable outcome of President Obama's policies."

Worse than Europe

South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint - known as a Tea Party favorite - was more bipartisan in his approach to the occasion. He took to the Senate floor and delivered a stinging rebuke to lawmakers of both parties.

"In reality in some ways our country is worse off than Europe," DeMint said. "We have federal debt, we have state debt, we have municipal debt, we have counties declaring bankruptcy and we have states approaching bankruptcy."

To avoid Europe's fate, DeMint said, legislators needed to stop playing politics.

"I know it's hard for some in these chambers to cut spending because dependency on government often means a dependable vote," he said. "It's time we look at the future and the debt that we're loading on to ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. This country will not survive the type of policies that we're producing here in Washington today."

In a piece published two weeks ago in National Review, DeMint said Americans should not believe Washington talk about cutting spending. In fact, he wrote, spending was still on the rise. While Republicans promised $100 billion in real cuts in a deal last spring, he wrote, they in fact compromised for $38.5 billion in future savings.

"In reality, the Congressional Budget Office found the deal still resulted in an increase of more than $170 billion in federal spending from 2010 to 2011," DeMint wrote. "The 'largest spending cut in history' ended up being a spending increase."

DeMint's numbers are not far off the mark. According to U.S. government figures, the federal government shelled out $3.456 trillion in fiscal year 2010 and $3.601 trillion in fiscal year 2011, an increase of $145 billion. According to the CBO, the federal government's total budget deficit of $1.3 trillion in fiscal year 2011 was almost identical to the deficit it incurred in 2010.

What's more, DeMint warned in National Review, the spending binge is still underway.

"Just last week (the first week of November), Democrats and Republicans in the Senate passed three new spending bills to increase 2012 funding above 2011 funding levels," he wrote. "The bills will increase spending for the Department of Agriculture by $6.4 billion; for the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development by more than $2 billion; and for the Commerce, Justice, and State departments by more than $694 million."

DeMint also blasted the current so-called deficit supercommittee, which he says is not really trying to cut spending but rather slow the pace of it. Indeed, the supercommittee is trying to put a finger in the debt dike and keep it to $21.3 trillion by 2021 - as compared to $15 trillion today - rather than the $23.4 trillion that had been projected.

That, DeMint said, was only trying to slow the nation's bankruptcy, quite like speeding off a cliff at 91 mph rather than at 100 mph.

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