The U.S. debt, which has jumped 55 percent under President Obama, is now so high that if working Americans had to pay their full share, the bill would be over $123,000, according to a new Harvard University Institute of Politics study of the nation’s empty bank accounts.

The school's fiscal 2012 Annual Report of the USA, which examines the federal budget, put the total debt at $16.7 trillion. But that's such a big number that the student authors tried to put it in perspective.

For example, that $16.7 trillion, which would go up under Obama’s debt ceiling plan the House and Senate are considering, is equal to:

– About $53,000 per every inhabitant of the United States, including children and the unemployed

– $123,000 if averaged out to employed Americans

– If converted into pennies and stacked, would be a column that would reach to the moon and back more than 3,350 times

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.