The big mistake in America's terrifying debt

The United States spent $572 billion in interest on federal debt over the last ten months. This news from the Congressional Budget Office is not particularly alarming because $572 billion is 2.6 percent of GDP, and U.S. interest payments have averaged about 2.6 percent of GDP throughout the 2000s. In the 1980s and 1990s, interest payments on the debt were higher, peaking over 5 percent. But then again they were a little lower in the most recent past (tipping below 2.4 percent in 2015 and 2.5 percent over 2020-2021).

Since...