WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. national debt reached a new record-high this week, as Congress considers another round of economic relief for the coronavirus.

The national debt is now $26 trillion, according to TreasuryDirect.Gov. The new milestone, reached Tuesday, is driven largely by the stimulus packages meant to save the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have never seen things like this before,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “But it’s the expected result of knowing that we’re borrowing so much to really fill in the huge, huge holes that are in the economy right now.”

A report this week by CRFB projects the national debt to grow by roughly $4 trillion in fiscal year 2020. Numbers from the Treasury Department show the debt has jumped over $1 trillion  in the last month alone as more money is sent to businesses and our own pockets.

“I think the best thing for people to keep in mind is, one, we actually need to be borrowing right now,” MacGuineas said. “That’s part of the medicine that’s going to help the economy survive this really difficult time. But part two of that is once we get through this, we’re going to have to deal with the national debt.”

So, what does all of this mean for you? Right now, each American citizen holds more than $78,000 of that debt, according to USDebtClock.org.

Because those levels are expected to continue rising, MacGuineas believes that if Congress considers passing another stimulus package, it should be narrowly tailored to areas such as state and local government relief.

“It’s not enough just to deal with the pandemic and to deal with the recession,” she said. “We’re also going to have to deal with the unprecedented levels of debt if we want our economy to survive and be strong in the longer run.”