Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 7th of May 2019 to The Sounding Line.
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According to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), local, state, and federal interest expenses on government debt owned by the public exceeded $824 billion in 2018, or 4% of GDP. The interest expense on government debt was nearly 18% more than the $700 billion of budgeted federal military spending in fiscal year 2018 and 93% of total military spending when off-budget and ’emergency’ military spending are included ($890 billion). Nearly $119 billion of the $824 billion in government interest expenses were paid to overseas entities.
While CBO forecasts imply that the federal interest expense will surpass military spending sometime around 2030, if state and local government debt expenses are included, government debt expenses could overtake total military spending as early as this year.
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I wonder, who gets this money? 119 billion goes to foreign countries and institutions. Who gets the rest of the 824 billion? Sounds like this yearly income is comparable to the cost of maintaining the US army. If half of this money gets split among 100 people/families/institutions (and the rest among a million so it is out of interest), this concentrated income is of public interest IMO. Because these 100 people/families/institutions can team up and do things that the Average Joe cannot – and in a way it is a no work income for them. So if anyone has an… Read more »
A partial answer to your question:
https://thesoundingline.com/which-countries-hold-the-most-us-government-debt/