investors. Down from 60% in 1998. Individual income tax amounted to about $1.2 trillion last year and interest on our debt was about $244 billion. See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States...

http://zfacts.com/p/461.html

The eye-popping $9 trillion gross national debt is owed by the "General Fund." That's the part funded by our income taxes.

What is the General Fund?
The General Fund of the federal government (AKA federal funds) with the $9 trillion debt. It is used to carry out the general purposes of the government, rather than the funds earmarked for a certain purpose, i.e. trust funds.

"General fund means the accounts for receipts not earmarked by law for a specific purpose, the proceeds of general borrowing, and the expenditure of these moneys." —From the Glossary of the Analytic Perspectives of the OMB Budget, FY 2005, p. 392.he eye-popping $9 trillion gross national debt is owed by the "General Fund." That's the part funded by our income taxes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17424874 /

Just who owns the U.S. national debt?

The money is borrowed from buyers of Treasury securities -- which are basically a big batch of IOUs that are auctioned off every three months.
The money flows in from all over the place: from individual investors and corporations, pension funds and governments, both in the U.S. and around the world. Basically, anyone with a large amount of cash looking for a safe place to put it is a good candidate for holding U.S. Treasury debt.

So just who are these lenders? As of last June (the latest complete breakdown available), the biggest holder of Treasury debt was the U.S. government itself, with about 52 percent of the total $8.5 trillion in paper that's out there.

edited to add additional link