What Our National Debt Interest Payments Could Have Paid For
The following, taken from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt Web site, provides very exact data going back to 1988.
Interest Expense by Fiscal Year End
2005 - $314,909,670,536.68
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
If you add that lot up, covering almost 18 years, we've thrown away $5,645,190,295,368.86 in interest payments. $5.6 trillion! An average of over $313 billion per year in money to simply pay the interest on our national debt.
Yesterday I also touched on another way to think about the interest expense the national debt is costing us, by comparing it against various other expenses the nation has recently incurred, or could have used the money to pay for. Let me add to the short list that I started a day ago:
What $313 billion could buy (if we weren't having to pay off our yearly nation debt interest expense)
- ¾ Department of Defense annual budget
- 1 Iraq War (so far)
- 1 Congressional Transportation Funding Bill
- 1 10-year Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program (estimate)
- 2 Space Shuttle Programs (so far)
- 2.5 Apollo Space Programs (in today's dollars)
- 10 Homeland Security annual budgets
- 20 "Big Dig" Projects
- 150 Freedom Towers (estimate)
- 208 Tsunami Relief Funding efforts (so far)
- 2,086,666 Armored Humvees
- 5,396,550 Humvee armor packages
The list could go on and on. Think of all the things this money could fund. All the incredible projects that could be undertaken.
What would be in your list?
Posted at 8/10/2005 10:13:00 PM PT
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5 Comment(s):
State Government officials should not get any raises or bonuses until there state budget is paid of the same with the federal government officials. It's Commonsense it is like a credit card you should only use what you can pay of with the least amount of interest as possible. Congress is not doing its job. They must be punished some how.
Is it accurate to say that the interest payments are "thrown away"? My question is who is receiving these interest payments, effectively plundering our Treasury?
Is the debt interest part of some larger scheme to bankrupt the government while stashing the plundered trillions is safe havens?
State Government officials should not get any raises or bonuses until there state budget is paid of the same with the federal government officials. It's Commonsense it is like a credit card you should only use what you can pay of with the least amount of interest as possibleto save you money. Government officials are not doing there job there wasting our money. They must be punished some how if it means they need to take a pay cut well so be it.I estimate the interest alone will be about $500'000'000,000 Thats Billion Dollars that goes to fouren countries like CHINA in 2008.
In Washington state the budgets, by law, have to be balanced. The next will be no different.
When your company makes a loss, I presume you take a pay cut each time? Somehow I suspect not.
Include the time value of money (assuming a modest 5% annual return) and the sum of all that paid interest since 1988 is actually $9.9 Trillion! Unbelievable.
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