The US spends huge amounts of money a day just to pay interest on the national debt.
The US government currently spends an average of $3 billion on interest expenses every 24 hours, according to Treasury Department data.
That's up from about $1.5 billion in early 2022.
Net interest expenses, which will consume $763 billion in fiscal year 2024, are now the second-largest budget item after Social Security, which is expected to consume $1.213 trillion, according to the latest report from the U.S. Treasury Department.
For the full 2024 fiscal year, interest on the national debt is expected to reach $1.157 trillion.
And while rate cuts appear to be on the horizon, Slock says the more than $1 billion in daily payments will continue.
"If the Fed cuts interest rates by 1 percentage point and the entire yield curve declines by 1 percentage point, then daily interest costs would fall from $3 billion a day to $2.5 billion a day.
On September 9, the national debt hit a new record high of $35.346 trillion, according to the Treasury Department's Debt to Cent database.
As of September 16, this figure is $35.273 trillion.
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