I can't tell from the article whether the interest payments referred to includes intra-governmental debt (including on holdings of the federal reserve). In any

I can't tell from the article whether the interest payments referred to includes intra-governmental debt (including on holdings of the federal reserve). In any event if the White House believes that interest rates are set to rise, and given that 30 year bonds are currently yielding 2.63%, it seems like now would be a good time to increase the amount of long term debt issued (see http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2014/10/US-debt-issuance-maturity-distribution-2006-2014.png http://ftalphaville.ft.com/files/2014/10/US-debt-issuance-ma...) and perhaps issue even longer term debt. Japan sells a 40 year bond, Canada, France, and the UK have each recently issued 50 year bonds.