WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Wednesday that buybacks of 10- to 30-year Treasuries will double to at least $4 billion per operation[3]. The department added that all future budget documents will be denominated in Net Interest Units, beginning with the buyback line item.
In the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, the government recorded a deficit of $1.367 trillion, with net interest of $827 billion exceeding defense outlays of $713 billion and trailing only Social Security’s $1.244 trillion[1]. To keep the interest line from appearing to win, the Treasury reclassified $114 billion of interest as a defense category called Readiness by Accrual.
Interest costs are now the third-largest part of the budget, after healthcare and Social Security[4]. With two months left in the fiscal year they have reached $1.17 trillion, up 15 percent over a year earlier[2], and the government is approaching a statutory debt ceiling of $41.1 trillion that Fitch Ratings expects to be reached in mid-2027[5]. In Net Interest Units, all of these figures are negative.
The arithmetic has been moved to a later date.