GOBankingRates reviewed various government budget documents for fiscal 2023 but could not find the Treasury debt or military spending figures Cohen cited.

The budget estimate for the Department of Health and Human Services - which includes Social Security and Medicare - was $1.7 trillion, though there was no further breakdown on specific HHS expenditures. “Thanks to decades of debt spending, which every Congress in our lifetimes has passed, and every President in our lifetimes has signed, it will cost nearly a trillion dollars this year just to pay the interest on the debts they’ve run up,” Cohen wrote.Īt the bottom of his tweet, Cohen provided what looks like a screenshot of an unspecified fiscal year budget, though presumably it is the federal government’s fiscal 2023 budget.Ĭohen’s chart shows that estimated interest on Treasury debt securities will total $897.7 billion for the year. In a July 31 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Cohen wrote that “the most expensive single program is paying the interest on the debt that Republicans and Democrats in Washington DC have run up in your name.” The amount of that interest is higher than either military spending or Social Security, he claimed.įirst Year of Retirement: 7 Money Moves You Absolutely Must Make See: 4 Social Security Shakeups from Biden That Could Hit Your Wallet by 2024įind: 3 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Retirement But neither of those suck up as much of the federal budget as one other item, according to entrepreneur and Libertarian political activist Spike Cohen. When it comes to federal government spending, two of the biggest outlays every year are for Social Security and national defense. Douglas Rissing / Getty Images/iStockphoto

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