There’s plenty of talk about the U.S.’ $34 trillion in public debt. Not the deficit — the amount of red ink every year spilled on the country’s accounts — but the cumulative total public debt. But a second number hasn’t received as much attention, although it should. That is the debt service, or the amount of money spent every quarter to satisfy the interest payments on the debt.
In the last quarter of 2023, the amount crossed a monumental threshold of $1 trillion a year. It is only getting higher.
[Update: The data is constructed on an annualized rate, which is not clearly noted in the provided information. Although it looks like $1 trillion per quarter, it’s what the year would look like if the rate during the quarter continued. It is still a scary number.)
The dems spend as though there are money trees growing in every yard . Then they create program after program the never-ending money give-away . And who is there today to oppose this spending ?
At current rates, the U.S. national debt is growing by a remarkable $1 trillion about every 100 days, equal to roughly $3.6 trillion per year.
As the national debt has ballooned, debt payments even exceeded Medicaid outlays in 2023—one of the government’s largest expenditures. On average, the U.S. spent more than $2 billion per day on interest costs last year. Going further, the U.S. government is projected to spend a historic $12.4 trillion on interest payments over the next decade, averaging about $37,100 per American.
Exacerbating matters is that the U.S. is running a steep deficit, which stood at $1.1 trillion for the first six months of fiscal 2024. This has accelerated due to the 43% increase in debt servicing costs along with a $31 billion dollar increase in defense spending from a year earlier. Additionally, a $30 billion increase in funding for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in light of the regional banking crisis last year was a major contributor to the deficit increase.
Overall, the CBO forecasts that roughly 75% of the federal deficit’s increase will be due to interest costs by 2034.
