Saturday, October 24, 2026
The federal government paid $1.36 trillion in gross interest on its debt in fiscal year 2026, up 11.5 percent from the prior year and more than Washington sent the states for Medicaid. At $3.73 billion a day, the cost of carrying the debt has become a top-five budget line by any measure.
The fiscal year closed on Wednesday with a record $332.6 billion of customs deposits, according to the Treasury's daily cash statement. It also closed with $157.8 billion paid out through Customs and Border Protection, against about $10.5 billion in each of the two previous years. Net of those payments, the border raised less than it did in fiscal 2025. Since May, it has paid out $17.5 billion more than it took in.
The Treasury paid $709.3 billion of interest on its securities in the fiscal year that ended on Wednesday, according to its daily cash statement, up 16 per cent from a year earlier and more than twice the level of 2022. Medicaid grants to the states came to $721.4 billion. Four years ago interest was about half of Medicaid. The average rate on the debt is still below 3.5 per cent, while new ten-year debt costs 5.3.