$870,000,000,000 in Interest Will Be Spent on U.S. National Debt This Year

This is Exceeding Defense Spending for First Time Since 1940 The U.S. government is expected to shell out nearly a trillion dollars this year just to cover the interest on its record-level debt. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonprofit that calls attention to issues with significant fiscal impact, cites data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimating that the US government will spend $870 billion on interest payments for the 2024 fiscal year (FY). According to the CRFB, interest spending is expected to surpass the government’s $822 billion budget for national defense this year. “This has…