Tipsheet

Obama Budget: Debt Payments to Exceed Defense Budget Within the Decade

A perilous tipping point, via the Senate Republican Budget Committee and the Weekly Standard:
 


Under this president's unanimously-rejected 2013 budget, federal spending on national debt interest payments would surpass our total defense budget within seven years.  Furthermore, current federal revenue levels will cover only Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and debt financing by 2025, according to Obama's own calculations.  Everything else -- including defense -- will be paid for with borrowed money. (It's probably worth noting here that national defense is a constitutional imperative).  This is a dangerous and unsustainable path.  Rep. Paul Ryan's budget staff tells me the Republican Path to Prosperity never crosses the national security rubicon illustrated above.  Defense spending would stand at "a couple hundred billion" dollars higher than debt interest payments in 2022 under the GOP plan, for instance. Yet this president has the gall to brand Ryan's proposal a recipe for American "decline."