As of March 2013, the U.S. deficit balance was $16 trillion. Why do think the U.S. government should be concerned? Should the government be equally concerned, if it were a surplus?

The US government should be concerned about the large level of national debt for two main reasons:

• The first is that there is no indication that the government plans to limit the size of the budget deficit anytime soon which means the national debt will continue to grow rapidly. This removes the possibility of growth or inflation significantly reducing the debt.
• Second is that eventually as it becomes clear the US can't repay its obligation without money printing, the the dollar will collapse. This will result in a worse economic crisis than the Great Depression if it occurred.

It is not clear how the government would have a surplus balance of $16 trillion as it uses a budget surplus to pay down the debt. If the government was simply holding $16 trillion in cash or loaned out $16 trillion that might also be worrying as it shows government has grown too large.