“Interest on the national debt now costs more than the entire defense budget.”

The Congressional Budget Office’s Monthly Budget Review for FY2025 records net outlays for interest of $970 billion, against national defense outlays of $859 billion — a gap of roughly $111 billion in interest’s favor. Net interest is now the federal government’s third-largest expense, behind only Social Security and Medicare, and CBO projects it to pass $1 trillion in FY2026. The claim holds under CBO’s standard budget-function definitions.