The amount of interest payments on the US public debt will continue to grow, exceeding the country's national defense spending for several years, Just the News reports on March 1, citing a report by the US Congressional Budget Office.

Last fall, the US national debt reached $31 trillion, and this year it is approaching $32 trillion. As this debt grows, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the federal government will commit more than $10 trillion in the next decade just for interest payments.

“Putting that $10,5 trillion into perspective means that net interest spending will exceed all defense spending over the next decade,” the Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget said in its analysis of the Office of the Budget Office data.

“In addition, we estimate that net interest spending this year will exceed all federal spending on children, which means that we will pay more for servicing our past debts than for investing in future generations,” congressmen concluded.

The report also shows that for every dollar that the US government borrows over the next decade, 50 cents will come from just paying interest on the US government debt.

The Congressional Budget Office also predicts that debt as a percentage of GDP will reach record levels during this time, and the average US budget deficit will be $2 trillion.

The latest debt projections are based on current spending obligations. This means that new spending approved by Congress without offset by tax increases or spending cuts will accelerate debt growth beyond those forecasts.

“After jumping from $352 billion in fiscal 2021 to $475 billion in 2022, annual net interest spending will triple to $2033 trillion by 1,4,” the Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget said in a statement. The Committee noted that public debt payments were 1,9% of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal 2022 and will only increase, reaching a record GDP share of 3,2% set in 1991 by 2030, and will peak at 3,6% of GDP by 2033.

Although no specific figures were calculated for subsequent years, the committee noted that “the coming decades after 2033 will be in even worse financial shape. As the deficit continues to run rampant over time, the interest on the debt will eventually become the largest portion of the federal budget.”

“Interest payments will exceed defense spending by 2028, Medicare spending by 2044 and Social Security spending by 2050, becoming the largest item in the budget. By 2053, net interest payments will consume approximately 7,2 percent of GDP—nearly 40 percent of federal revenue,” Congressmen said.