As of 21-Apr-2024 @ 9:30pm, the U.S. National Debt was $34,673,799,611,277 – that’s “34 trillion, 673 billion, 799 million, 611 thousand, 277 dollars.”
If the U.S. taxpayers were to foot the bill for that amount, it would be $266,951 / taxpayer. For households with two taxpayers… well, based on the US Census Bureau numbers from 2022, that’s more than 7 times the average household income!
But, have you ever wondered about the interest the U.S. has to pay on that borrowed money? According to the non-partisan Congressional Budge Office (CBO), for the first half of Fiscal Year 2024, the Department of Defense spent $412 billion. While at the same time the interest on the national debt totaled $440 billion (that’s a 43% increase in interest debt in the first half of Fiscal Year 2024).
To put this another way…
In the first half of Fiscal Year 2024 the U.S. deficit spending was $1.07 trillion. With an interest amount of $440 billion, the United States interest on it’s debt was a whooping 41% of that debt!
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