Nine Weeks --- $104 Billion: How the U.S. Is Paying More to Sit on Its Own Credit Card

Two months into fiscal 2026 and Uncle Sam has already started writing some very large thank-you notes — to bondholders. 

In the nine weeks since the fiscal year began, the Treasury has paid roughly $104 billion in interest on the national debt, a sum that works out to more than $11 billion a week and already consumes roughly 15% of federal spending for the year. 

That’s not pocket change — it’s the government’s version of a recurring subscription that you can’t cancel.

Cue the policy brainstormers... 

The White House and Treasury are trading fiscal pick-up lines and pie-in-the-sky revenue schemes. 

One of the bigger flirtations is tariffs: the administration argues higher duties will bring in big bucks (the CBO now estimates tariffs will reduce deficits by about $3 trillion through 2035 — down roughly $1 trillion from earlier forecasts). 

That sounds helpful until someone mentions that estimated receipts are still concentrated, uncertain, and could be eaten by other promises — like tariff “dividends” to households which many folks could use.

Meanwhile, the Treasury’s borrowing plans are expanding... 

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation (and Treasury’s refunding papers) say the government expects to issue about $158 billion more in debt in the first half of this fiscal year than it did a year ago — an upbeat invitation for future interest bills to grow up fast. 

Translation: borrowing today seeds the interest payments of tomorrow, which need even more borrowing the day after. It’s the financial equivalent of a never-ending “buy now, pay later” commercial!

Economists warn that the macro backdrop complicates the math. 

Deutsche Bank’s 2026 outlook is relatively constructive about growth — but it also flags wider deficits and the risk that structural fiscal slippage will deepen financial strains. 

In plain speak: yes, the economy may grow, but it won’t necessarily grow fast enough to erase quickly mounting fiscal liabilities — and that makes servicing $38 trillion-plus of debt an ambitious household chore.

Policy thinkers have also started eyeing an older, slightly fancier option: channeling private wealth toward public finance. 

UBS chief economist Paul Donovan noted governments have long “mobilized private wealth to support public finances,” pointing to tools ranging from incentivized bond programs to more contentious measures like inheritance levies or heavier capital-gains taxes. 

In short: the “Great Wealth Transfer” — trillions slated to move between generations — is increasingly being treated like public-policy tinder. 

If you were wondering whether your heirloom stocks might someday fund a bond that funds a bridge, you’re not alone.

What does this mean for the average person? 

First — and most boringly — higher interest costs crowd everything else out. 

When interest is one of the largest line items in the budget, it competes with spending on health, education, infrastructure, or even the occasional bipartisan committee that still meets occasionally. 

Second, policy makers will keep trying a cocktail of revenue-raising (tariffs, tax tinkering) and spending adjustments — some clever, some peculiar — to keep the math from ballooning. 

And third, volatility is the friend of bad timing: slower tariff receipts, slower growth, or faster rate hikes could all make interest costs climb even faster.

So, what’s the satirical moral of this story? 

Imagine the nation as a household that proudly owns a mansion and a very large vacuum: you can keep vacuuming dust into a corner, but somebody still has to pay the electricity bill. 

Right now the bill is being paid — and paid again — at a pace that makes even seasoned accountants check the clock. 

If fiscal 2026 were a streaming plan, we’d already be on the premium tier!

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Sources summary (brief): Treasury fiscal-data and interest-expense trackers showing ~$104B in interest paid so far this fiscal year; reporting on tariff revenue projections and CBO updates noting a $1 trillion downward revision to earlier tariff offsets; Peterson/PGPF coverage of the Quarterly Refunding noting $158B more borrowing year-over-year; Deutsche Bank Research outlook for 2026 and related deficit/risk commentary; UBS commentary/Paul Donovan on mobilizing private wealth and the Great Wealth Transfer. (fiscaldata.treasury.gov)