The United States is sitting atop a fiscal precipice. With the total U.S. debt surpassing $37.43 trillion as of September 2025, the nation faces a historic reality. Nearly one-quarter of every tax dollar it collects is consumed by servicing the interest payments on its debt burden.

The relentless march of U.S. debt

According to monthly updates from both the U.S. Treasury and Joint Economic Committee, the national debt has soared to $37.43 trillion. This marks an increase of $2.09 trillion in just the past year.

The interest payments alone for FY2025 exceed $478 billion year-to-date, up 17% from last year, according to CNBC.

This expense is projected to account for about 23 cents of every dollar collected by the IRS in revenue. This is a staggering proportion that has risen sharply as global interest rates normalize following years of quantitative easing.

Tariffs: big numbers, small impact

Recent years have seen the U.S. government rack up record-breaking tariff revenues, especially after a suite of new import duties imposed under the Trump administration.

These tariffs are expected to bolster Treasury coffers and could reduce the national deficit by $4 trillion over a decade.

Yet even such windfalls barely dent the mountain of national U.S. debt, with rising interest costs outpacing tariff collection gains. The IMF cautions that “the scale of the increase in tariff revenue is highly uncertain,” while Eliant Capital posted:

“Despite tariff revenues, the deficit for July was $291B with the U.S. spending $630B and collecting $338B meaning 46¢ was borrowed for every $1 spent.”