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Fortune
Fortune
Jason Ma

Interest on U.S. debt is becoming a top driver of future deficits, as the sheer size of past borrowing overwhelms the fiscal outlook

(Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. debt is expected to continue soaring in the coming decades not because of excesses committed by future lawmakers, although that’s certainly possible, but because interest payments on past borrowing will increasingly dominate spending.

Americans got a reminder of that outlook as the U.S. crossed a grim fiscal threshold this week, when first-quarter data confirmed debt is now bigger than the economy.

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