John Spratt: “When you have an enormous increase in debt service like this, what it does is crowd off, trade off, other things that…”

“When you have an enormous increase in debt service like this, what it does is crowd off, trade off, other things that would normally be purchased, defense and non-defense goods and services. Instead, the one thing that is truly obligatory in the budget is interest on the national debt. We cannot fail to pay it, or the credit of the United States collapses. So it takes precedence over everything else. You can see it has become the big boy on the block. It eclipses other non-defense spending priorities. From education to health care to veterans health care, you name it, interest on the national debts will be crowding out these other priorities, and the American people will pay substantial taxes to service this debt and wonder why they get nothing in return.”