While the government will almost certainly never pay down it's debt completely, looking at the effort needed to pay off the debt is a useful way to ground the d

While the government will almost certainly never pay down it's debt completely, looking at the effort needed to pay off the debt is a useful way to ground the discussion of debt when future interest rates are unknown. In the last 40 years, the 30 year treasury bond has gone for rates of less than 2% and more than 14%. The interest as a percent of tax revenue metric would have predicted the death of America in the 1980s, while oppositely making it look like things will be forever rosy today. Neither of those perspectives accurately characterizes the debt burden.