Horrendous Federal Interest Costs Approach

Since 1997, the U.S. federal debt owned by the public has tripled from $3.8 to $11.6 trillion. The interest paid on that debt has tripled, too, right?

Wrong. The interest paid has actually declined from $248 billion in 1997 to $225 billion today. Why? Because the average interest rate paid on the debt has fallen from over 5 percent in 1997 to only 2.25 percent today.

When the average interest rate returns to a more-natural level of 5 percent, the interest payments will balloon to about $600 billion. That’s $2,000 a year for every American, including children, just to cover federal interest payments!

For a start, how about cutting federal expenses by, say, half? Yes, plenty of federal employees would lose their jobs. But they could do something useful to mankind for a change.