The bomb is already ticking

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein says the $40 trillion US debt pile is a ticking time bomb, and the damage lands first on national security.

A 400-year warning sign

Rubenstein points to a historical pattern: when a country's interest bill exceeds its defense bill, that country is weakening. The US crossed that line.

“whenever a country paid more interest on its debt than it did for its national security, that's a sign of weakness”

A trillion each, and diverging

Interest runs a little over $1 trillion a year. Defense runs about $1 trillion. As interest climbs, the money left for defense shrinks.

“the interest goes up, and the money available for defense goes down”

A record broken since 1991

Interest now eats 18.5% of federal revenue, topping the 18.4% record set in 1991. The share has more than quadrupled in four years, to $1.25 trillion.

One in five dollars, gone

Nearly $1 of every $5 the government collects goes straight to servicing old debt, not to infrastructure, Social Security, or defense. Then it borrows more to cover the interest.

It reaches your wallet

Rubenstein's end state is higher rates across the board: pricier mortgages, pricier borrowing, pricier credit cards. Washington's math shows up in your monthly bill.

“It makes it more expensive for housing, more expensive to borrow money, more expensive for credit cards.”