INTEREST ON THE NATIONAL DEBT JUMPED 14% IN 10 MONTHS

🔴 Washington spent $963 billion just carrying its debt in the first 10 months of fiscal 2026.

A year earlier, the same 10 months cost $846 billion. That is a 14% jump, and Fortune reports it is far and away the biggest increase of any line item in the federal budget.

For scale: Social Security outlays rose 5% over the same stretch. Medicare and Medicaid rose 8% each.

Interest already overtook Medicare to become the second largest cost in the budget. Now it equals 70.1% of what Social Security costs, up from 64.9% a year ago.

📈 Two things are driving it.

One is the pile itself. Fortune reports the federal debt grew 7.3% since the start of 2026 to $40 trillion, and has swelled nearly 50% since the start of 2019. In the three weeks before publication it moved 1%, an annualized pace approaching 15%.

Two is the cost of money. Roughly 50% of debt held by the public sits in Treasury notes of 2 to 10 year maturities. Since last July the two-year yield went from 3.94% to 4.18%. The 10-year went from 4.37% to 4.69%.

And the deficit through July rose 10% to $1.8 trillion, which means more issuance ahead.

On August 19, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled a plan to buy large amounts of 10-year Treasuries, offset by selling newly issued shorter-term debt at lower rates. Fortune's Shawn Tully argues it may shave the average yield paid, but it does nothing about the borrowing driving rates in the first place.

Wall Street cheered the Bessent plan. The interest number got ignored.

Do you think anyone in Washington cuts spending before this number does the cutting for them?

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