The financial burden on the United States in the form of interest payments on the federal debt has reached unprecedented levels. According to data, the government spends $3 billion a day to service the debt. This has led to the total annual interest expense exceeding $1,1 trillion.
These figures are three times higher than a decade ago and have doubled in just the last two and a half years. With debt obligations rapidly growing and interest rates high, servicing the national debt is becoming one of the largest expenditure items in the US budget. The total US national debt has already exceeded $35,3 trillion, and servicing it seriously complicates the country's economic maneuvering.
Experts note that even if the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 1%, daily interest payments would still remain at $2,5 billion per day. That’s double the average from 2009 to 2019, highlighting the scale of the problem. Low rates in previous years allowed the government to keep payments affordable, but rising interest rates have made servicing the debt significantly more expensive.