By now, it’s no secret that the United States is in serious debt, with reports estimating that we will owe around $20 trillion between 2025 and 2034. And if that wasn’t bad enough, thanks to higher-than-average interest rates, we now pay more in interest payments on that debt than we do in defense spending.
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the US spends an average of about $900 billion a year on national defense. This has always been one of the top spenders for our nation. In fact, this is about $600 billion more than any other nation in the world spends on national defense, including China, the second-highest spender.
And yet, in 2024, we are already on track out outspend that in interest payments.
Per the US Treasury Department, the US spent $514 billion on national debt interest payments during the first seven months of the fiscal year, which began in October 2023. And that’s $16 billion more than we’ve spent on national defense so far.
This makes interest payments the third largest American government expense, coming in just behind Social Security and health programs other than Medicare.
To put this in perspective, just two years ago, interest payments were seventh from the top in regards to spending, coming in behind Social Security, health programs other than Medicare, income assistance, national defense, Medicare, and education, Yahoo Finance reported.
At this rate, the CRFB estimates that interest payments on our national debt will be at the very top of the spending list by 2051.
And as anyone with serious debt knows, interest payments can pretty much drown you.
What happens when our interest payments exceed everything else, and we can’t pay for our debts each month? What happens when the most powerful and supposedly richest nation on Earth goes bankrupt?
It could mean a global disaster…
Those in Washington have to do something to slow our spending and interest payments down. We have to fix this, or there may no longer be a United States for our children to grow up in.
