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National Debt Interest

In 2025, what portion of all federal revenues were used to fund the interest on the national debt?

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In 2025, the interest on the national debt was $1.3 trillion, or 22% of all federal revenues. This is equal to $9,398 for every household in the nation, 2.5 times federal corporate income tax revenues, and 11.9 times federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka, Food Stamps).

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Fair Share of Taxes

U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson (D–ME) claims that he will “make a fair tax system where middle-class people don’t pick up all the burden.”

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IN FACT, middle-income households pay an average of $13,200 per year in federal taxes, while the top 20% pay an average of $106,300, and the top 1% pay an average of $826,400. Here are the specifics:

Unlike the incomplete and misleading tax statistics reported by the media and politicians, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal tax burdens of different income groups based on their actual taxes paid (not marginal tax rates) while accounting for nearly all forms of income and all types of taxes, such as wages, salaries, capital gains, dividends, pensions, health benefits, payroll taxes, excise taxes, corporate taxes, hidden taxes, and write-offs (aka preferences).
These data show that the poorest 20% of households pay an average of $100 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 0.2%.
The second poorest 20% of households pay an average of $6,000 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 8.2%.
The middle 20% of households pay an average of $13,200 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 12.7%.
The second richest 20% of households pay an average of $25,700 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 17.0%.
The richest 20% of households pay an average of $106,300 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 25.9%.
The richest 1% of households pay an average of $826,400 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 32.3%.
Using methods that vary from the Congressional Budget Office’s, the U.S. Treasury Department estimates that the richest 0.1% of households pay an average of $3,689,000 per year in federal taxes, an effective tax rate of 33.4%.
Over the full span of CBO data — which dates back to 1979 — the effective federal tax rates of the richest 1% have averaged from 29% to 32% during every decade with no upward or downward trend.
Since the 1940s, federal revenues in every decade have averaged 17% to 19% of the U.S. economy with no upward or downward trend.
Although Republicans and Democrats enacted numerous “tax cuts” during those decades, most of them were actually “tax evens” which correct for “bracket creep” that consumes an ever-growing share of people’s incomes over time due to tax laws that aren’t indexed for inflation or wage growth.
Similarly, the Reagan tax cuts of 1986 — which lowered the top personal income tax bracket from 50% to 28% — eliminated so many tax preferences that the richest 20% of households paid higher tax rates after the law was enacted.
Despite these facts, Jackson and other Democrats have repeatedly alleged that the rich don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes without specifying what that share should be.

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