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FILE – Side by side image of the Venmo app and a close-up image of the PayPal sign at headquarters. (Getty Images)
Feeling generous?
Well, Venmo and PayPal are now allowing users to help pay off the nation’s growing debt.
Help pay off the country’s debt
The backstory:
Allowing the public to help pay down the United States’ ballooning debt isn’t a new thing.
The U.S. Treasury Department has been accepting gifts to reduce debt held by the public for many years.
Dig deeper:
What’s new is that you can now make contributions digitally through Venmo or PayPal.
By the numbers:
Since 1996, people have contributed $67.3 million to pay down the national debt, which has since grown to a whopping $34 trillion.
The total money gifted toward the national debt amounts to about 20 minutes’ worth of debt, according to an Axios report.
Axios estimates that the national debt is growing just under $55,000 a second.
According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation website, each person in America (that includes babies) would have to pay about $102,000 to pay it off.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from the U.S. Treasury Department website. Reporting by The Hill and Axios contributed.