Interest due on U.S. debt: Close to $5 trillion

up-arrow, graphUnless lawmakers make big changes, the interest Americans will have to pay to keep the country running over the next decade will reach unheard of levels.

Here’s a new way to think about the U.S. government’s epic borrowing: More than half of the $9 trillion in debt that Uncle Sam is expected to build up over the next decade will be interest.

More than half. In fact, $4.8 trillion.

If that’s hard to grasp, here’s another way to look at why that’s a problem.

In 2015 alone, the estimated interest due – $533 billion – is equal to a third of the federal income taxes expected to be paid that year, said Charles Konigsberg, chief budget counsel of the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group.

On the bright side – such as it is – the record levels of debt issued lately have paid for stimulus and other rescue programs that prevented the economy from falling off a cliff. And the money was borrowed at very low rates.

Full Story Interest due on U.S. debt: Close to $5 trillion – Nov. 19, 2009.

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