Breaking: National Debt Tops $16 Trillion As Democrats' Party Begins

There it is: Barack Obama’s most enduring legacy.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the federal government has now officially topped $16 trillion in debt.

The announcement, which came just an hour before Democrats gaveled in their convention in Charlotte, N.C., to renominate President Obama for another four-year term, immediately boosted the government’s grim fiscal picture back to the fore of the national debate.

The federal government has not had a budget in more than three years, yet has spent $5.4 trillion on this single president’s watch.