Interest payments on $34 trillion US national debt will exceed DEFENSE spending this year – as legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones says a ‘debt bomb’ set to go off in US
Interest payments on the US national debt will eclipse defense spending in 2024, grim new projections show.
Federal debt is at a historic high, having hit a staggering $34 trillion earlier this year.
Interest payments on this debt are now the fastest growing part of the federal budget, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
They jumped above Medicaid last year, and will rise above defense and Medicare later this year. The former is health coverage for people with limited income, and the latter is mostly for over-65s.
It means by the end of 2024, interest payments will be the second largest government expenditure. Only Social Security will be a bigger cost.
Net interest has been exploding over the past few years, with payments nearly doubling from $352 billion in 2021 to $659 billion in 2023.
In 2024, the federal agency predicts interest will total $870 billion – and surge past $1 trillion annually by 2026
