If interest rates remain the same between now and the year 2025, the net interest the United States government pays on its debt will be the biggest budget item, even higher than defense and non-defense spending.
According to data from the White House (via the Wall Street Journal), spending on net interest will surpass defense spending in 2021 and non-defense spending in 2022. Once 2025 arrives, interest payments will be close to $800 billion per year.
Now just imagine when interest rates finally start to climb. Will interest payments exceed $1 trillion this same time frame? It’s very much possible, especially with rising debt levels.
See: CBO estimates U.S. national debt to hit $19.1 trillion under Obama & Obama budget: U.S. annual interest payments to hit $763 billion by 2023
This once again shows how little the majority of the American people actually know and or care what happens within their government. The people elected the politicians, so why is it that there only seems to be 1, out of all of congress and the president, who want to tell the “TRUTH”, about the government.
Analysis of spending that avoids citing ALL spending is unfortunate, because it masks the fact that the function of the Federal Government has ceased having Defense of the Nation as its primary function. The Federal Government is now mostly an engine of income distribution:
FY2014 Actual Federal Spending:
64.63% Social Services
18.26% Defense of the Nation
04.19% Vet Benefits
06.39% Interest on the Debt
06.52% Other Government