The U.S. Treasury Department released a statement on Tuesday, confirming that the federal government has topped $16,000,000,000,000 in debt. (That's $16 trillion, if you lost count of all the zeros). 

When combined with state level debt ($4.19 trillion), the number tops $20 trillion in total public debt.

At the end of 2008, just before President Obama officially took office, the federal debt was just under $10 trillion; that's a 60 percent, or $6 trillion, increase in less than four years.

According to The Heritage Foundation, at $16 trillion every American’s share of the federal debt is $37,437. That represents nearly three-quarters of the income of the average American household earning $50,964 in 2012.

We're no stranger to debt here in Illinois; our state debt is $271 billion, or $21,000 per resident. Add that to the federal debt and Illinoisans are on the hook for nearly $60,000 in public debt.

Current generations are seeing their futures mortgaged for the sake of big government. Some argue that this equates to taxation without representation.

There is one thing we can all agree on: this has to end.