The federal government spent more than $970 billion on interest payments in fiscal year 2025, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
For years, politicians have treated debt warnings as background noise. Debt-to-GDP ratios and long-term budget projections rarely break through. GAO's latest report should. America now spends more servicing its debt than defending the country, and nearly as much as it spends on Medicare.
In fiscal year 2025, the government spent more than $970 billion on interest to domestic and foreign holders of U.S. debt (net of interest income). This cost was equal to 3.2 percent of GDP. Net interest spending is now one of the largest categories of federal spending. For example, the government spent more on interest than on national defense and nearly as much as on Medicare.
Interest payments do not fund services, secure the border, strengthen the military, or send benefits to anyone. They cover the cost of past deficits.
And the bill keeps growing. Washington spends more than it collects, borrows to cover the gap, then borrows again as interest costs climb.
According to GAO, debt held by the public reached $30.2 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2025, equal to 99 percent of gross domestic product. The agency projects debt will hit its previous historical record of 106 percent of GDP by 2029. By 2056, debt held by the public is projected to reach 251 percent of GDP if current policies remain unchanged.
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The American Action Forum's Jordan Haring pointed to the same imbalance: Spending is projected to climb to nearly 35 percent of GDP by 2056, while revenue sits around 17.1 percent of GDP.
That gap is the problem.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, reviewing the report, warned that rising debt and rising interest costs are reinforcing one another, creating a cycle that becomes more difficult to reverse the longer policymakers wait to act.
And it gets worse.
Under current policy, interest spending is expected to become the fastest-growing part of the federal budget. By 2044, Washington is projected to spend more on net interest than on Social Security, currently the largest category of federal spending.
We project that by 2044 the government will spend more on net interest than on Social Security—currently the largest category of federal spending.
That should be a flashing red light.
GAO warns that high and rising debt can push up interest rates for households and businesses, slow economic growth, and leave the government with less room to respond to wars, financial crises, or natural disasters.
For decades, the United States has responded to emergencies from a position of financial strength. Washington is burning through that advantage.
The report does not prescribe a single solution. It does make clear that the nation's fiscal outlook is unsustainable, and that waiting will only make the eventual choices uglier.
According to the agency's estimates, maintaining debt at roughly today's level relative to the economy by 2056 would require some combination of significantly higher revenue, lower spending, or both. Waiting five or ten years to begin making those changes would require even larger adjustments.
Washington can keep arguing over where spending should be cut, where taxes should be raised, and whether either party has the nerve to do what is necessary.
The debt will keep accumulating anyway.
The 2056 projection is staggering. But the number that matters right now is $970 billion in federal interest payments last year.
More than national defense.
That is the warning Washington keeps pretending it cannot hear.
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