Interest on U.S. debt has soared past $1 trillion for the first time in history, according to calculations from the Treasury.

The estimation is calculated using data on the government’s monthly outstanding debt balance and average interest. The projected amount has doubled during the past 19 months.

This shocking figure comes as interest costs for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 totaled more than $879 billion, which equaled around 14 percent of the government’s overall total outlays.

In addition, the U.S., which already outspends every other country in the world when it comes to national defense, is now spending more money on gross interest on Treasury debt securities than it does on national defense, at $879.3 billion versus $775.9 billion, respectively, for the aforementioned period.

The interest bill is only expected to rise moving forward, and it could do so sharply. As Zero Hedge points out, it only took a month after American federal debt first surpassed $33 trillion to rise by a further $600 billion. This amounted to a total of $33.6 trillion, which is more than the GDPs of Germany, Japan, China and India combined.

Moreover, according to Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett, “the CBO projects that US government debt will rise by $20 trillion next 10 years, or $5.2 billion every day or $218 million every hour!”

Fitch downgraded U.S. credit rating in August

In August, Fitch downgraded the U.S.’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ amid growing concerns about the nation’s debt and finances. It said at the time that there had been a “steady deterioration” in governance in the U.S. during the past two decades.