Scarborough baselessly claimed “we're spending ... $2 trillion this year ... just to pay interest on the national debt”

Written by Christine Schwen

Published

On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough baselessly claimed that “we're spending ... $2 trillion this year ... just to pay interest on the national debt.” However, the Treasury Department estimated that interest payments on the national debt will be roughly $450 billion in fiscal year 2009 -- almost one-quarter the amount Scarborough claimed.

On the March 6 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough baselessly claimed that “we're spending $2 trillion -- $2 trillion this year ... just to pay interest on the national debt.” Later in the show, Scarborough asserted that “we run health care summits where we talk about spending $635 billion while America is moving toward spending $2 trillion this year -- almost half their budget -- on simply servicing the national debt.” Scarborough did not provide any evidence to support his claim, and the Treasury Department estimated that interest payments on the national debt will be roughly $450 billion in fiscal year 2009 -- almost one-quarter the amount Scarborough claimed. The effects of the recently passed American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) are not included in that estimate, but based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates of other versions of the law, the effect will not be significant in the current fiscal year.

The Treasury Department's January Monthly Treasury Statement -- issued before the passage of the ARRA -- estimated the interest payment on the federal debt for fiscal year 2009 to be about $449 billion; it was $451 billion in fiscal year 2008. As for the effects of ARRA, the CBO estimated in a January 27 letter to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) that an earlier version of the law -- which was estimated to have a similar effect on the fiscal year 2009 deficit -- would increase the debt service by $0.7 billion in fiscal year 2009.

From the March 6 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

PAT BUCHANAN (MSNBC political analyst): Mike [Allen, Politico correspondent], you got a $1.75 million -- trillion deficit before the numbers were refigured for December, which doubled the size of how far the economy had fallen. So the $1.75 trillion is understated. You're going over $2 trillion --

SCARBOROUGH: So we'll spend --

BUCHANAN: -- and you're never coming back.

SCARBOROUGH: Hold on. Let's stop. Let's explain that we're spending $2 trillion -- $2 trillion this year, [MSNBC political analyst] Mike [Barnicle], just to pay interest on the national debt. And I need to be clear, Mike -- and tell me whether you agree or not -- this is not an ideological battle that I care to wage. I'm not waging it.

[...]

SCARBOROUGH: It is depressing. And, sadly, Barack Obama talked about reforming Social Security, welfare -- Medicare, Medicaid, and he was told by [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] and [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] there was no support for it on the Hill, give it up. So instead we run health care summits where we talk about spending $635 billion while America is moving toward spending $2 trillion this year -- almost half their budget -- on simply servicing the national debt.