Shocking stat of the day: Annual interest expense on US debt has reached 1.2 TRILLION over the last 12 months. In other words, the US is now paying 3.3 BILLION in interest per day. Annual interest expense has now surpassed health and defense expenditures by ~300 billion. Interest costs are also now the second-largest government expense, just ~300 billion below Social Security. As a result, interest payments reflect ~18% of all taxes paid, just shy of a record 19% seen in the 1980s when interest rates were as high as 19%. Interest on federal debt is our biggest crisis.