According to the National Debt Clock, the total debt as of March 7, 2021, was $28,024,870,801,925.00. You can get the current number by going to https://www.usdebtclock.org/.
The 4th largest budget item is interest at $395,274,775,762.00
If interest rates increase 1% that will increase the interest payments by $280,248,708,019 a year. That would make interest-only $50,000,000,000 less than the total defense spending. Defense spending keeps us safe and maintains our security and way of life. Interest is the payment for renting money we already spent and doesn’t consider any efforts to reduce the debt by principal repayments.
Some More Debt Info
Currently, the unfunded Social Security and Medicare debt is over $82 trillion and this is not included in the federal debt because of the debt measurement rules followed by the federal government. If the government followed generally accepted accounting principles this debt would appear on its financial statement.
Comment: In the Bush/Gore campaign in 2000 both candidates agreed that we needed to reform Social Security (and Medicare) and reign in the burgeoning unfunded debt. They did not agree on techniques, but they both agreed on the pending crises if nothing were to be done. Well, to date NOTHING has been done to address this.
Just passing on some info. Have a nice day!
If you have any tax, business or financial issues you want to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
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