The total national debt was $20.245 trillion on the last business day of fiscal year 2017.

On the last business day of fiscal year 2018, which was Friday, Sept. 28, the total debt had grown to $21.516 trillion. Friday was the first day in history the national debt rose above $21.5 trillion.

The increase is just the latest sign that borrowing is on the rise.

Last month, the Congressional Budget Office said federal borrowing through the first 11 months of fiscal year 2018 hit $895 billion, $222 billion higher than the first 11 months of the prior year.

The budget deficit alone is set to soar above $1 trillion by 2020, as they did during President Obama's first term. But the federal borrowing also takes place outside its formal budget, including for various loan programs, and the pace of growth in the debt has already exceeded $1 trillion per year at times.

In addition to the $1.2 trillion increase in the national debt in the last fiscal year, it took a little more than six months for the debt to rise from $20 trillion to $21 trillion.

Conservatives in Congress have complained that spending remains unchecked, which will lead to only higher deficits in the years to come. But they could only watch in February when GOP leaders and President Trump reached a two-year spending deal that is set to boost federal spending by a total of $300 billion in fiscal years 2018 and 2019.

Under current law, the government is allowed to borrow as much as it wants through March 1, 2019. After that, the debt ceiling will take effect again, and prevent the government from borrowing anything above the level of debt on that date.

Congress in recent years has avoided this limit by suspending the debt ceiling again.