Our national debt has reached $40 trillion and interest payments are now $1.3 trillion per year. Interest payments consume 42% of all corporate and individual income taxes before any other program is funded. We borrow $2 trillion per year in additional debt to keep the lights on. Now the Treasury is being forced to manipulate interest rates from going higher. The average interest rate on the $40 trillion is currently about 3.3%. As those older treasury bonds mature and get rolled over at nearly 5%, the overall interest expense for the govt will rise from $1.3 trillion per year to $2 trillion per year (and beyond). You can quickly see how this cycle in interest payments on the national debt could swallow most of the US govt budget. Meanwhile, Congress is making zero effort to cut spending.(Wall Street Mav)