Hey Cephyr good to hear from you. How about I move this to the politics section? OK?
Interest on our Federal debt last fiscal year (ended Sept 30 1010) was $413,954,825,362.17
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htmThe third largest amount of annual debt interest paid by Treasury in our nation's history.
This even though for some years now, interest rates have been at 65 year lows. Last year T-bills paid around 1/5 of 1% interest or less. At times over the last couple of years interest rates actually went negative. That is, you had pay the government for the privilege of loaning it money.
Here's the kicker. Over 1/2 of the Federal debt is held in instruments that mature in 1 year or less.
So what will happen to the Federal interest payments with just a little up in rates? It's obvious that a very impossible situation will rear it's ugly head almost immediately.