Trump’s $5,000 Voucher Promise Lands Amidst Record $1 Trillion Interest Bill

Data from the Congressional Budget Office’s latest monthly report reveals that net interest payments on the public debt surpassed $1 trillion over the first 11 months of fiscal year 2026. The U.S. Department of the Treasury expended $1.05 trillion in net interest payments during that period, running an average debt-servicing expense of approximately $95 billion per month. This cost of servicing federal debt now exceeds major pillars of government spending; interest outlays over the past 11 months were $50 billion greater than the combined outlays of the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The expanding shortfall has pushed total U.S. gross national debt above $40 trillion.