The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America is a document drafted by the Second Continental Congress - in the Pennsylvania State House (now Hall of Independence) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 - which proclaimed that the Thirteen American Colonies - then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain-they had defined themselves as thirteen new sovereign and independent States and no longer recognized British rule; instead, they formed a new nation: the United States. John Adams was one of the politicians who undertook the independence process, approved on July 2 by the full Congress without opposition. A committee was responsible for drafting the formal statement, which was presented when Congress voted on it two days later.
The federal debt is the total amount of money that the federal government owes, either to its investors or to itself. At the end of fiscal year 2019, the total federal debt was $22.8 trillion dollars.
