Opinion: National-debt interest now costs more than Medicare or defense

https://www.marketwatch.com ^ | May 14, 2024 | By Brett ArendsFollow

[RomanSoldier19]

Last week we supposedly got “good news” on Social Security and Medicare, because the trust funds are in slightly better shape than a year ago.

But here’s the rest of the picture.

Interest payments on the ballooning national debt have now for the first time exceeded every other individual item in the budget except Social Security. Debt interest through the first seven months of this fiscal year has just topped $500 billion, reports the U.S. Treasury — about $4,000 for every household in the country.

Repeat: This is just the interest. Think of the national debt as an interest-only mortgage. Or, better still, as a negative amortization loan, where the bill just keeps getting bigger year after year.

That interest bill was bigger than the entire Medicare budget — a “mere” $465 billion — through the same seven months. It was even bigger than everything we spent on national defense.

[abbastanza]

Giving money to illegals.

[abbastanza]

Give it time. If Potato head is elected again, it will collapse.

[roadcat]

I’ll admit to not being an expert on the money supply, etc., but I actually thought the whole system would’ve collapsed by now.

Just wait until after the election. Biden is pushing that collapse into the future, to not happen prior to the election. The economy is real bad right now, and the government doesn't know what to do except try to prolong the collapse from happening. Massive inflation, while companies are laying off workers, stores closing everywhere, and people carrying massive debt loads with ever-higher interest rates. Not good.