The US Treasury Department says it expects to pay a whopping $1.157762 trillion in interest on the national debt for the fiscal year 2024.
The interest represents the cost of borrowing money, which the government does by issuing Treasury bonds, bills and other securities.
Interest payments have already totaled $1.05 trillion as of August, and the remaining payments will be added in by the end of the month as the fiscal year comes to a close.
The Treasury Department says interest on the debt is expected to be the country’s third-largest expense this fiscal year just behind the Department of Health and Human Services (Medicare and Medicaid) and Social Security Administration at $1.727 trillion and $1.520 trillion, respectively.
The updated numbers come as billionaire Elon Musk issues a warning on the growing deficit and debt, which has now reached $35.3276 trillion.
In a panel interview at the All-In Summit 2024, Musk said he believes the government is projecting confidence while in a dire situation.
“Everyone seems to be sort of whistling past the graveyard on this one… The Defense Department budget is a very big budget. It’s a trillion dollars a year – DoD (Department of Defense), intel – it’s a trillion dollars. And interest payments on the national debt just exceeded the Defense Department budget. They’re over a trillion dollars a year just in interest and rising.
We’re adding a trillion dollars to our debt, which our kids and grandkids are going to have to pay somehow, every three months. Soon it’s going to be every two months and then every month.
And then the only thing that we’ll be able to pay is interest.”
The national debt jumped by about $1.337 trillion from January 1st until now.
This means the debt has actually increased by around $445.67 billion every three months on average.
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