Facts of Interest

Interest on the national debt will reach nearly $1 trillion a year in a decade.

Interest on the national debt is the fastest growing part of the federal budget.

Interest costs will exceed spending on children in the federal budget by 2020.

Interest on the national debt will be more than federal spending on Medicaid by 2020.

Interest on the national debt will be more than we spend on the military by 2025.

Interest costs will nearly triple from $325 billion in 2018 to $928 billion in ten years.

If current trends continue, 1 out of every 8 federal dollars spent will go to interest payments on the national debt by 2026.

In ten years, debt interest will be nearly five times greater than federal spending on infrastructure and education.

Interest on the national debt currently represents nearly 9% of all federal spending. In ten years, it is projected to be 13%.

More is spent on debt interest than on the Departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs combined.

More is spent on debt interest than on the Departments of Education, Energy, Labor, and Transportation combined.

Over the next decade, the federal government is expected to pay $7 trillion – $55,000 per U.S. household – on interest payments.