Each citizen gets $5,000 once; each resident pays $163 a year for it
Source. Census Bureau, POPTHM via ALFRED; Treasury Fiscal Data, average interest rate on interest-bearing debt, August 2026; OMB, Historical Tables, FY2027 Budget, Table 1.1 (FY2025 receipts). Also: Treasury Fiscal Data, average interest rates; OMB, Table 1.1. Population January–August 2026; rate August 2026.
Method and data
Method. Shares per resident divide by 342.739 million residents (POPTHM, January–August 2026 average): debt $1,597.7 billion; interest at 3.49% a year; twenty years of interest compounded at 3.49% with the interest borrowed, the rate held constant and the debt never repaid (the record since 2001). Paying for it instead: $1,597.7 billion is 30.5% of FY2025 receipts ($5,236.4 billion).
| Item | US dollars |
|---|---|
| Each citizen receives, once | 5,000 |
| Each resident’s share of the new debt ($1.60T) | 4,661 |
| Each resident’s share of the new debt ($1.23T) | 3,578 |
| Each resident pays in interest, every year ($1.60T) | 163 |
| Each resident pays in interest, every year ($1.23T) | 125 |
| Each resident’s share of 20 years of interest ($1.60T) | 4,596 |
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Higgins Strategy. “Each citizen gets $5,000 once; each resident pays $163 a year for it” Exhibit 9, Five Thousand Dollars Each (Study XI). October 12, 2026. https://higginsstrategy.com/charts/11-07-per-person/