Interest on the US national debt?

Question

I see a lot of talk about the total US national debt, but what about the interest being payed on that debt? Does anyone know an estimate of how much interest the US is paying annually on its national debt?

Answer 1

About 14% of federal tax revenue is used to pay the interest on the accumulated national debt. Almost all of that debt was run up during the Reagan and Bush years.

Answer 2

Interest Expense Fiscal Year 2008

May $22,388,495,898.10

April $22,362,345,451.78

March $23,023,540,357.53

February $20,037,492,573.51

January 24,686,746,422.35

December 106,138,177,851.45

November 25,344,987,578.31

October 22,310,362,733.54

Available Historical Data Fiscal Year End

2007 $429,977,998,108.20

2006 $405,872,109,315.83

2005 $352,350,252,507.90

2004 $321,566,323,971.29

2003 $318,148,529,151.51

2002 $332,536,958,599.42

2001 $359,507,635,242.41

2000 $361,997,734,302.36

1999 $353,511,471,722.87

1998 $363,823,722,920.26

1997 $355,795,834,214.66

1996 $343,955,076,695.15

1995 $332,413,555,030.62

1994 $296,277,764,246.26

1993 $292,502,219,484.25

1992 $292,361,073,070.74

1991 $286,021,921,181.04

1990 $264,852,544,615.90

1989 $240,863,231,535.71

1988 $214,145,028,847.73

Answer 3

According to this website I guess it's about 4.5%. 9.4 trillion at 4.5%. Talk about d**n!!

That's just what I can tell for the month of May this year. Total Marketable 4.957 and Total interest bearing debt. Take a look at that chart! It's crazy where it's all coming from. One of the pages shows the debt to date!

$22,388,495,898.10 in interest for the month of may!!

Answer 4

The national debt is increasing by millions upon millions a day...let alone the interest, we haven't even stopped borrowing.

Answer 5

Does it really matter---it will never be repaid---the system would not let the National Debt be repaid for if all debt both public and private were paid in full---there would be no FRN's in circulation-----inflation lets the Government pay their obligations when they come due with cheaper FRN's.--- I heard this from Alan Greenspan in an interview.