NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- America's total debt load is on pace to top $13 trillion this year, and $22 trillion by 2020 -- and that's just the debt we're counting.
What's not being counted: potential debt bombs that don't get factored into most budget analysis.
When anyone talks about U.S. debt, they typically refer to two numbers.
The first is the debt held by the public. That's money owed to those who have bought U.S. Treasurys, most notably big bond mutual funds and foreign governments. Debt held by the public today is roughly $8 trillion and rising.
The second number is the money the federal government owes to government trust funds, such as those for Medicare and Social Security. The government has used revenue collected for those programs to cover other outlays. Currently, the debt to the trust funds is approaching $5 trillion.
The two combined is the total gross debt that's accounted for. But deficit hawks also worry about what's not on the books.
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