$35 Trillion. That's the U.S. national debt.

U.S. government borrowing and spending never stops. The federal government ran another big deficit in June, as the national debt inches closer to $35 trillion. That's an unfathomable number, meaningless to most people, as we simply can't comprehend a number that big. Let's try to put the $34.9 trillion national debt into perspective.

According to the National Debt Clock, every American citizen would have to write a check for $103,565 to pay off the national debt. Of course, a lot of people don't pay taxes, meaning the taxpayer burden is much higher. Every U.S. taxpayer would have to write a check for $266,953 to wipe out the debt. And that's on top of the taxes we already pay! To put it another way, $35 trillion is more than the total economies of China, Japan, Germany, and the UK combined.

The enormity of the national debt is not a new concern. Historical figures have warned about the dangers of a large national debt. One historical figure once called a large national debt a ""public curse."" He believed that in a representative government, a large public debt is a greater curse than in any other form of government. Another historical figure considered public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. Another urged the use of debt sparingly and recommended paying it off as quickly as possible to preserve public credit and security.

In April, the U.S. national debt interest exceeded defense spending. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the rapid rise in interest expenses caused the cost of servicing the debt to eclipse military spending. The latest budget update showed that the federal government has spent more on paying interest on the national debt than on the military in fiscal year 2024. The CBO's budget report for March showed that the U.S. has spent $412 billion on military programs at the Department of Defense through the first half of FY2024, according to preliminary figures from the CBO and the Treasury Department. That represents an increase of $26 billion, or 8%, from the amount spent in the March through October period last year, but it has been surpassed by the rapidly growing cost of servicing the national debt. Interest expenses incurred from the more than $34 trillion national debt totaled $440 billion in the first six months of FY2024 – an increase of $133 billion, or 43%, from the first half of FY2023.

Those figures largely track with the CBO's projections for FY2024 that were compiled as part of its 10-year budget outlook. That report, which was released in February, projected interest expenses would rise to $870 billion in FY2024 – up from $659 billion the year before – whereas defense spending would rise to $822 billion from $805 billion in FY2023. The dramatic increase in the cost of servicing the debt is due to higher interest rates brought about by the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation.

Federal Reserve policymakers hiked rates to their highest level in two decades, with the benchmark federal funds rate currently sitting at a range of 5.25% to 5.5%. Those rate hikes followed inflation reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% year-over-year in June 2022, which declined to 2.97% as of June 2024. There is an 86% target probability rate for rate cut this September, as officials turn to upcoming economic data for more cues on inflation.

The CBO projects that the cost of servicing the national debt will continue to rise, consuming a significant portion of the federal budget. The cost of servicing the national debt is projected to rise by $211 billion to $870 billion in FY2024. In terms of the overall budget, the CBO found that the federal government spent $3.252 trillion and took in $2.188 trillion in tax revenue in the first half of FY2024, resulting in a $1.064 trillion deficit. While that budget deficit is about $37 billion smaller than what was incurred during the same period a year ago, when accounting for shifts in the timing of particular expenditures – like those delayed by weekends or holidays – it found that the deficit was about $46 billion larger.

The CBO projects that the full-year FY2024 budget deficit will total $1.5 trillion, a decrease from the $1.7 trillion deficit in FY2023 that ranked as the third-largest in U.S. history. Last year's $1.7 trillion deficit trailed only the $3.1 trillion FY2020 deficit and $2.7 trillion FY2021 deficit that were incurred at the peak of spending on COVID pandemic relief programs.

​The national debt and its associated interest expenses are pressing issues that have significant implications for the U.S. economy and its fiscal health. As interest expenses continue to rise, they consume a larger portion of the federal budget, potentially crowding out other important expenditures and putting additional strain on taxpayers.