Quick Read – Interest on the national debt now exceeds Medicare spending for the first time, draining $23.8 billion every week from the federal budget. – Net interest surged 190% since 2020 to $1 trillion in fiscal 2026, projected to surpass Social Security as the largest budget…
em by 2047. – MacGuineas warns the US will borrow over $2 trillion this fiscal year, while the One Big Beautiful Bill adds $6.9 trillion to the debt over 10 years. – For the first time in American history, the US government is spending more to service its debt than it spends on Medicare. Through the first seven months of fiscal 2026, the Treasury paid $628 billion in net interest, exceeding gross Medicare spending of $588 billion and Medicaid’s $409 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s Monthly Budget Review
Measured net of offsetting receipts (gross Medicare minus beneficiary premiums), the crossover slips to roughly 2028-2029. Either way, the direction is the same. The Number That Should Worry You Here it is: $23.8 billion per week.
That is what Washington has paid every single week just to service the national debt through the first eight months of fiscal 2026, roughly $3 billion every day, before a dollar goes to defense, healthcare, education, or infrastructure. Only one federal program, Social Security ($953 billion year-to-date), is currently larger. The Full Picture CBO projects net interest will hit $1.039 trillion for full-year fiscal 2026, a 7% increase following jumps of 10% and 34% in the two prior years.