The Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee has put together this chart showing that payments on the interest of federal debt will "dwarf virtually every federal expense" in 2024:
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The chart is based on Congressional Budget Office projections. "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," the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee explains in an email.
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.