Interest payments could make the cost of US debt spiral

Fox News:

What is the real cost of the U.S. government's nearly $16 trillion debt?  

"The debt crisis is likely bigger than you think," a new report issued last week by Deloitte, one of the world's largest accounting firms, concluded.  

That's because interest payments add a whole new level of fiscal pain to the country's debt problem. Interest payments on the national debt alone, it noted, are expected to total some $4.2 trillion over the next decade.  

And that number could fluctuate depending on rates. 

The lead author of the Deloitte study, director Bill Eggers, stressed the way that U.S. government debt could quickly spiral out of control if investors become less willing to lend more money.  

"If interest rates go up by simply 3 percent over the next decade, the additional cost to the Treasury, just for interest payments, would equal the peak combined cost of the wars in both Afghanistan in Iraq," he said.  

So what could $4.2 trillion buy instead?  

Deloitte, an accounting and consulting firm that often audits government finances, says it's enough to do any of the following: 

• build 80,000 miles of highways 
• pay tuition for every science/math/engineering college degree in the country 
• triple U.S. government general R&D funding 
• build six international space stations 
• offset 80 percent of global warming pollution in the atmosphere as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

• The report notes that the $4.2 trillion could also be given back in the form of tax cuts. 

...

This is another aspect of the Obama spending spree that will be an issue in the election this year.  Hopefully, voters will be more knowledgeable than he is about eh consequences of his spending programs.