Economy: The U.S. government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt—equal to spending on defense and education combined
The problem with an increasing debt burden is that it costs more to maintain it:
This is precisely the issue with which the U.S. Treasury is wrangling at present. As total U.S. national debt ticks over $39 trillion, the interest payments on that value are eye-watering: $529 billion for the first six months of the current fiscal year.
A new budget update from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released yesterday highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out the near $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026.
This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.
That means the service payments on public debt are roughly equal to spending for the same period on both the Department of Defense’s military budget and the Department of Education.
These two outlays contribute costs of $461 billion and $70 billion respectively.
The net interest payments on public debt are also increasing at a pace.
For the same period last year, the Treasury paid $497 billion to service its debt. The difference from last year to this is a $33 billion leap—or 7% more than before.
The CBO report notes service payments increased “because the debt was larger than it was in the first half of fiscal year 2025 and because of higher long-term interest rates. Declines in short-term interest rates partially mitigated the overall rise in interest payments.”
Efforts are being made to rebalance the books, with the likes of President Trump’s tariffs playing a role.
The CBO’s latest monthly update showed that receipts for the first half of the year totaled $2.5 trillion, an increase of $223 billion on the same six-month period last year.
Outlays have also increased, but at a slower pace: up $84 billion from $3.57 trillion in 2025 to $3.65 trillion in 2026.
Despite the increase in revenues for the government, a significant deficit still emerged:
$1.2 trillion for the first six months of the current fiscal year. Although this was an $140 billion improvement on the deficit for last year, it still represents borrowing of more than $2 trillion for the full fiscal year….
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Border Patrol Arrests Four British Nationals for Illegal Entry from Canada into Maine
Border Patrol reportedly arrested four British nationals who are accused of illegally entering the U.S. from Canada into Maine on April 3, 2026.
Ali Mohammed Ali Abdullah, Hameed Mohammed Nagi, Ibrahim Ayyub Khan, and Mohammed Sultan Saleh were arrested after crossing the border, writer Steve Robinson wrote in a post on Substack based on court filings.
Maple syrup workers reported the men wandering in the woods who were allegedly looking for a getaway driver.
The men claimed that they were going on a hike, but a GoPro camera from one of the men seemed to provide evidence that they were trying to cross the border illegally.
Border Patrol also found a gray Nissan waiting to pick up the men.
The Substack post said:
Another man in the group — Ali Mohammed Ali Abdullah — can be heard on the recording asking, “I’m on US Soil?” Saleh replied by showing his phone screen with GPS coordinates displayed, and declared, “Now, we are in the US. We just made it, baby.”
Florida police pull dozens of immigrant truck drivers off roads: ‘People with no names’
AFlorida commercial driver’s license crackdown has revealed huge safety issues within the industry.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement recently partnered with state and federal agencies to implement a four-day investigative task force called “Operation Highway Shield.”
FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass spoke to reporters on Thursday and revealed the staggering numbers of violations that were discovered when they inspected approximately 3,300 drivers.
From those drivers, authorities removed 176 from service, with 42 of them cited for federal immigration violations, while another 35 drivers were arrested for criminal charges.
“Some of the driver’s license that we would find wouldn’t even have a name on the CDL,” Glass told reporters. “Literally no name. … But you got a CDL, no first name, and it even says no name given; from other states, that is not from the state of Florida.”
At the same time, another 54 drivers were relieved of service over language deficiencies.
According to Fox 35 Orlando, these deficiencies were tied to federal requirements outlined in President Trump’s executive order from April of last year, titled “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers.” The order requires proficiency in English.
“So you’re having people with no names, operating commercial motor vehicles, but different types of endorsement running up and down your highways,” Glass explained.
12-yo Girl Named a Hero for Running into Burning Home to Save Brothers
A Georgia pre-teen saved her older brothers from potentially perishing in a fire that consumed the left side of the family’s two-story home.
She’s been hailed by the family and community as a hero, who saved the most important things the family had while everything else was destroyed in the fire: each other.
The Johnson family of 6 had only moved into the house a few months before the fire started last Monday in their garage.
As it raged across the ground floor, Macy arrived home on the school bus and saw the fire.
WJCL News didn’t say whether she knew her two older brothers were in the house, but in any case she ran to the door and began screaming that the house was on fire.
“My oldest son was preparing to go to work. He was in the shower, again, had no idea until she started screaming,” said Macy’s mother Lisa Johnson, who said her second-oldest son was asleep in his room over the garage. “She’s an incredible girl and I’m very proud of her.”
Firefighters from Richmond Hill and Bryan County arrived quickly and stopped the fire before it consumed the entire house. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
“Hard as it is to know that we’ve lost almost everything, that we have a lot of memories, a lot of good things, we have each other and we have God,” Mrs. Johnson said. “And I have faith in him and there’s a reason for everything.”
Lebanon & Israel to hold direct talks on peace; Iran violates the ceasefire TV7 Israel News 10 Apr.
1) The IDF Chief of Staff asserts that Hezbollah, which is Iran’s terror proxy in Lebanon, is experiencing deep shock – as the war persists.
2) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces direct negotiations with the Lebanese government – as Jerusalem and Beirut aim to disarm Hezbollah.
3) The Ayatollah regime in Iran is in breach of the ceasefire – as the Strait of Hormuz remains inherently blocked.
Taiwan tracks Chinese warships and warplanes despite Beijing’s peace messaging
Taiwanese officials are tracking what they view as a worrying rise in Chinese naval activity and military pressure against the island, even as Beijing presses a message of peace and cooperation in meetings with Taiwan’s opposition leader.
China’s tactics are all the more unnerving for the Taipei government, given the opposition continues to stymie a defense spending rise that Washington has pushed for.
The buildup also comes at a time when the US is focused on the conflict in the Middle East and President Donald Trump is readying for a May meeting with China’s Xi Jinping.
“China is continuously and persistently expanding its military capabilities, and the military threat it poses to us is becoming increasingly severe,” Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo told lawmakers on Thursday amid anger among the ruling party over the decision by members of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to skip talks on stalled defense spending.
Taiwan has to show its determination to defend itself to the US and other like-minded partners, he added.
“But the most frightening scenario is — if all of our international allies were to question whether we have such resolve, what would we face? I cannot imagine it.”
China views Taiwan as one of its provinces and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Two Taiwanese security officials told Reuters that China has deployed nearly 100 naval and coast guard vessels in and around the South and East China Seas this week.
One official said China usually deploys around 50-60 ships in the region, so the increase in the past weeks was “very rare,” especially because this time of year is not usually busy for Chinese naval drills.
A second highlighted the timing of the increased presence, coming with Washington focused on Iran, and as Taiwan’s opposition leader visits China.
Meeting KMT chairwoman Cheng Li-wun in Beijing on Friday, Xi said people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait want peace and cooperation, but added China will “absolutely not tolerate” independence for Taiwan.
The KMT says there is “no connection whatsoever” between Cheng’s trip and government defense spending plans…..
The staggering way wildfires raise Californians household bills — and it’s only going to get worse
California’s diastrous wildfires drive up the price of power bills by an average of $41 for customers of the state’s largest utility company — adding insult to injury as the destructive infernos continue to have devastating impact.
A new report found that Pacific Gas & Electric customers are forced to shoulder 19% more in added costs, while customers of Southern California Edison and and San Diego Gas & Electric pay and additional 17% and 14%, respectively, for their bills.
“Wildfire risk is not just an occasional catastrophe, but a recurring cost embedded in the state’s economy,” read the report from the California Earthquake Authority says.
Wildfires add to the already-sky-high prices Californians pay for everyday living.
Gas is the most expensive in the nation, while utilities are among the highest in the US. Electricity costs increased by 37% between 2020 and 2025, according to the report, which predicted electricity and insurance prices to rise further.
The report’s solutions aim to stabilize the insurance market and lower costs by establishing a state-sponsored wildfire home insurer to relieve private insurance companies of liability for catastrophes.
It also calls for ending liability for accidentally starting fires and creating new programs to help homeowners rebuild and protect their homes.
Earthquake authority spokesperson Ben Deci told Bloomberg that the recommendations were meant to be “an unflinching look at the landscape of policy options available to California — each with real trade-offs that deserve honest debate.”
Nancy Watkins, a principal and actuary with consulting firm Milliman in San Francisco, told Bloomberg that the most critical recommendation from the report is the state telling residents to protect their homes further through home hardening, a series of construction techniques to make their homes more-wildfire resistant.
“We have communities that are unacceptably vulnerable to fire, and we haven’t done enough to change that,” she said.
The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires cost the area between $250 and $275 billion, according to independent estimates. The fires also caused 31 deaths and potentially long-lasting health effects for those in the area.
The fires were so severe that insurance only paid out a fraction of the total cost, around $22.4 billion.
Many residents have still not returned to their homes, and communities in Malibu and the Pacific Palisades remain ravaged and fire-scarred
The List: 19 Republicans Now Back Maria Salazar’s Amnesty for Illegal Aliens
The bill, at first glance, would offer amnesty to the roughly 10.5 million illegal aliens who lived in the United States prior to 2021, so long as they meet some requirements, while more than doubling employment-based legal immigration and blowing up foreign student pipelines in the hopes of giving special corporate interests a continuous flow of foreign labor to hire.
For years, the bill has continuously failed to gain traction in Congress, but recently picked up support from 19 House Republicans and 20 House Democrats.
Those Republicans who are now co-sponsors of the Dignity Act are:
- Rep. Michael Lawler (R-NY)
- Rep. David G. Valadao (R-CA)
- Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA)
- Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA)
- Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
- Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO)
- Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN)
- Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)
- Rep. Young Kim (R-CA)
- Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
- Rep. James Baird (R-IN)
- Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)
- Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds (R-MP-At Large)
- Del. James Moylan (R-GU-At Large)
- Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX)
- Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY)
- Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL)
- Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R-VA)
- Rep. Zachary Nunn (R-IA)
These Republicans join the likes of Democrat Reps. Henry Cuellar (TX), Jim Costa (CA), Thomas Suozzi (NY), Adriano Espaillat (NY), and Salud Carbajal (CA), among others.
During an interview on Fox News with Laura Ingraham, Lawler vigorously defended his support for the amnesty bill and struggled to answer how federal immigration officials would enforce certain provisions of the bill to prevent every illegal alien in the U.S. from securing the amnesty.
The amnesty scheme — in exchange for nationwide mandatory E-Verify and requirements that a border wall be constructed and completed, which is already in federal law under the Secure Fence Act of 2006 — gives a path to citizenship for an estimated 2.5 million so-called “DREAMer” illegal aliens, those illegal aliens who are eligible and enrolled in former President Obama’s executive amnesty.
In addition, the bill freezes deportations for illegal aliens considered “prima facie eligible” and offers a 7-year renewable legal status to the roughly 10.5 million illegal aliens who have lived in the U.S. before 2021, so long as they have not committed certain crimes and pay taxes and fines…..
THE CREATURE UNLEASHED: Exposing the Federal Reserve Cartel w/ G. Edward Griffin | Ep76 | Lara Logan
Lara interviews G. Edward Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island. Griffin explains how the Federal Reserve, created during a secretive 1910 meeting on Jekyll Island, operates as a banking cartel rather than a government agency, profiting from fiat money created from nothing.
He discusses how this system fuels national debt, inflation, and economic control. The conversation expands into collectivism versus individualism, the dangers of digital currencies, and the deep state. Despite a sobering outlook, Griffin remains cautiously optimistic that an informed population can drive meaningful change.
