CBO: Interests Costs To Dwarf Virtually Every Federal Expense

The U.S. gross federal debt currently stands at $17.548 trillion, and net interest payments to our creditors are the fastest-growing item in the budget. In 2014, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the nation will spend $233 billion on interest payments. By the end of the budget window in 2024, however, CBO forecasts that interest payments will nearly quadruple to an astonishing $880 billion. Every dollar spent paying our creditors is a dollar wasted—money for which we get nothing in return. Interest payments threaten to crowd out every other budget item. To put the $880 billion, single-year interest payment in perspective, here is what we currently spend on other budget items:

• Federal Courts - $7.4 billion
• Department of Education - $56.7 billion
• Secret Service - $1.8 billion
• Food Inspection - $2.3 billion
• Census Bureau - $1.0 billion
• Border Patrol - $12.3 billion
• National Parks - $3.0 billion
• NASA - $17.6 billion
• Centers for Disease Control - $7.1 billion
• Federal Prison System - $6.9 billion
• Workplace Safety Inspections - $0.9 billion
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement - $5.6 billion
• FDA - $2.6 billion
• Federal Highway Budget - $40.4 billion
• Coast Guard - $10.0 billion
• Small Business Loans - $0.9 billion
• Veterans’ Health Care - $55.3 billion
• FBI - $8.3 billion

Not only do interest payments threaten to consume the federal budget, but they also threaten to plunge the nation into fiscal crisis. Even a modest rise in interest rates could lead to a financial emergency, with the U.S. facing a dangerous spiral of rising interest costs and increased borrowing to finance those interest costs.