U.S. Debt Interest Payments Top $1 Trillion

The U.S. government does not have the taxpayer cash to sustain our bloated, expensive, and largely unconstitutional bureaucracy and freebies programs.

Payments just on the interest of America’s massive and ever-growing national debt have now topped $1 trillion. Half of our nation’s personal income taxes are just servicing our debt! The government drafts and approves and increases budgets and programs and agencies, but we don’t really have the money we’re spending. At some point, the system will collapse unless drastic cuts and reforms are enacted.

Economist E.J. Antoni highlighted the sobering new statistics. “Treasury has already paid over $1 trillion in interest on the federal debt this F[iscal]Y[ear], and we still have 1 month to go; the cost to service the debt is up about $250 billion compared to first 11 months of prior FY,” Antoni posted. He included a chart showing the “Budget Receipts” of the U.S. government.

Treasury has already paid over $1 trillion in interest on the federal debt this FY, and we still have 1 month to go; the cost to service the debt is up about $250 billion compared to first 11 months of prior FY: pic.twitter.com/hC8ELrkW3D

— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) September 12, 2024

Again, taxpayers cannot support this bloated and spendthrift system. Democrats can babble about taxing the rich all they want, but the rich and the middle class are already paying into an unfair tax system and it’s not enough. “Interest on the federal debt this FY is equal to about half of all personal income taxes collected — we're a nation of debt slaves...” Antoni tweeted on Sept. 12.

The Founding Fathers wisely opposed income tax (especially a progressive income tax) — but they also wanted a strictly limited federal government. And they would have been appalled at suggestions that the federal government should be involved in healthcare, universities, or wealth redistribution, among other areas. 

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Our first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton warned that a national debt should “be remoulded into such a shape as will bring the expenditure of the nation to a level with its income.” He added, “Arrears of interest, continually accruing, will be as continual a monument, either of inability, or of ill faith and will not cease to have an evil influence on public credit.” If we’d stayed more true to his vision, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the debt crisis we are in now. Poor Hamilton would have a heart attack over U.S. debt interest payments exceeding $1 trillion.

NBC5 Chicago reported:

With the Federal Reserve holding benchmark rates at their highest in 23 years, the government has laid out $1.049 trillion on debt service, up 30% from the same period a year ago and part of a projected $1.158 trillion in payments for the full year.

Subtracting the interest the government earns on its investments, net interest payments have totaled $843 billion, higher than any other category except Social Security and Medicare.

America’s budget deficit went up in August, NBC Chicago added, estimating that it was near $2 trillion for the entire year. The Biden-Harris administration’s outrageous student loan forgiveness shenanigans were reportedly a major factor. Buying votes in defiance of the law is an expensive endeavor, and it’s contributing to the looming national debt crisis.