The federal government spent more on interest payments in 2025 than it spent on national defense, on Medicare, or on every dollar of border security and veterans’ care combined. In 2026, the national debt has crossed $36 trillion. For families across Florida’s 14th Congressional District — Brandon, Riverview, Valrico, Plant City, Apollo Beach, and Sun City Center — that arithmetic does not stay in Washington. It shows up at the gas pump, in the homeowners insurance bill, and in the monthly mortgage statement.
This post breaks down what $36 trillion in national debt and $1 trillion in annual interest payments actually mean for Hillsborough County families in 2026 — and what kind of representative it takes to address them.
How Big Is the National Debt in 2026?
The U.S. national debt has crossed $36 trillion. To put that number in scale, that is more than $107,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. For a four-person household in Brandon or Riverview, that is more than $400,000 in federal debt obligations attached to the family before any tax bill is calculated.
The debt has grown across every administration of both parties. It is the cumulative result of roughly forty years of Washington spending more than the federal government takes in. The annual federal deficit — the gap between revenue and spending in a single year — has averaged more than $1.5 trillion in recent years and is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to remain at or above that level for the foreseeable future.
That trajectory is what families in Sun City Center and Apollo Beach are watching when they hear “national debt” in the news. It is not a one-time emergency number. It is the running total of decisions Washington has refused to confront.
Why Federal Interest Payments Now Exceed the Defense Budget
The most consequential number in the federal budget right now is not the debt itself — it is the interest paid on the debt.
In 2025, federal interest payments alone exceeded $1 trillion. That is more than the entire annual defense budget. More than Medicare. More than the federal government spends on veterans’ care, infrastructure, and border security combined. Every dollar of interest is a dollar that buys nothing — no roads, no medical research, no border agents, no air defense. It is pure overhead, the price of borrowing decisions made decades ago, paid by today’s working families.
Two factors drove this. First, the debt itself kept growing. Second, when the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates during 2022 and 2023 to fight the inflation Washington’s spending helped create, every dollar the federal government rolled over into new bonds had to be issued at a higher interest rate. The cost of carrying the debt jumped sharply, and it is not coming back down on its own.
For Florida’s 14th Congressional District, the consequences cascade. Federal interest crowds out funding for veterans’ benefits in Hillsborough County. It crowds out Social Security and Medicare for FL-14 seniors. And it raises the floor on every interest rate in the private economy.
How the National Debt Hits FL-14 Households Directly
Federal debt does not stay on a Treasury balance sheet. It moves into household budgets through three channels.
Higher borrowing costs. When Washington borrows trillions of dollars a year, it competes with every private borrower — small businesses in Brandon, families taking out a mortgage in Valrico, farmers in Plant City buying equipment — for the same pool of capital. That competition pushes interest rates up. A 30-year mortgage in Hillsborough County costs hundreds of dollars more per month than it did before federal deficits exploded.
Inflation. Deficit spending that exceeds the economy’s capacity to absorb it produces inflation. The roughly 25 percent grocery price increase Hillsborough families have lived through over the last five years is not a mystery. It is the direct consequence of a federal government that printed money it did not have to cover spending it could not justify. Our inflation and cost-of-living analysis for FL-14 walks through that arithmetic in detail.
Erosion of purchasing power. Even when grocery prices stop rising as fast, every dollar saved or earned at a lower interest rate than the inflation rate is a dollar quietly losing value. Retirees in Sun City Center living on fixed Social Security and savings feel this most acutely. Young families in Riverview and Brandon saving for a home feel it as a moving finish line.
What Happens If Washington Keeps Borrowing at This Pace
The forecast is not abstract. CBO projections under current law show federal interest payments approaching 4 percent of GDP and continuing to rise. At that level, interest crowds out increasingly large shares of every other federal priority. Either taxes rise sharply, programs are cut sharply, or the Federal Reserve is pressured to monetize the debt — which produces another round of inflation.
There is no painless fourth option. The longer Washington waits, the smaller the menu of choices becomes. That is why a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is not a slogan — it is the only durable structural fix. Forty-nine of fifty states have a balanced-budget requirement. The federal government has none. A constitutional amendment cannot be repealed by a single Congress in a single year. It would require Washington to live within its means the way every Hillsborough County family already does.
What John Peters Will Do in Congress on the National Debt
As FL-14’s representative, John Peters will:
- Cosponsor and vote for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
- Vote against any spending bill that does not pay for itself or include explicit offsets — no more “must-pass” packages stacked with unrelated giveaways.
- Vote to codify validated DOGE recommendations into law, ending duplicate programs and recovering wasted funds. See our DOGE and government waste analysis for FL-14 for the inventory so far.
- Prioritize core obligations — defense, border security, Social Security, Medicare, and veterans’ care — and demand outcome audits on everything else.
- Treat the federal budget the way Hillsborough County families treat their household budget — every line questioned, every dollar accounted for.
After eighteen years in Congress, Kathy Castor has voted for every major spending package that brought America to $36 trillion in debt and $1 trillion in annual interest payments. The voting record is public at clerk.house.gov. FL-14 deserves a representative whose first instinct is to ask whether Washington can afford the bill — not whether the politics will pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is the U.S. national debt in 2026?
The U.S. national debt has crossed $36 trillion in 2026 — more than $107,000 for every American man, woman, and child. For a four-person Hillsborough County household, that represents more than $400,000 in federal debt obligations attached to the family before any tax bill is calculated.
Why are federal interest payments now bigger than the defense budget?
In 2025, federal interest payments exceeded $1 trillion — more than the entire defense budget, more than Medicare, and more than the federal government spends on veterans’ care, infrastructure, and border security combined. The growth is the result of cumulative deficit spending plus the higher interest rates required to roll over existing debt after the inflation spike of 2022–2023.
How does the national debt affect Florida families directly?
Federal debt feeds into household budgets in three ways: higher borrowing costs on mortgages, car loans, and business loans; faster inflation in groceries and insurance; and erosion of purchasing power for savings and fixed incomes. For FL-14, this shows up most acutely for retirees in Sun City Center and young families in Brandon, Valrico, and Riverview saving for a home.
What happens if Washington keeps borrowing at this pace?
CBO projections under current law show federal interest payments approaching 4 percent of GDP and continuing to rise. Interest crowds out other priorities until either taxes rise sharply, programs are cut sharply, or the Federal Reserve is pressured to monetize the debt — which produces another round of inflation. The longer Washington waits, the smaller the menu of choices becomes.
What is John Peters’ plan to address the national debt?
John Peters supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, codifying validated DOGE recommendations into law, and voting against any spending bill that does not pay for itself or include explicit offsets. He commits to prioritizing core federal obligations and demanding outcome audits on everything else.
A Federal Budget That Lives Within Its Means
Federal debt is not abstract. It is the price of groceries, the cost of a mortgage, the value of a paycheck. Every dollar Washington wastes or borrows is a dollar your family does not get to keep. After eighteen years of Castor’s voting record, FL-14 deserves a representative who treats the federal budget the way Hillsborough County families treat their household budget.
Donate to John Peters’ campaign or contact the campaign. See John’s full plan on fiscal responsibility and the issues that matter most to FL-14.