CNN Money decided to highlight the fact that when the debt increases, interest payments will rise. While those familiar with basic arithmetic probably already understood this fact, CNN Money decided that this is big news. To make this fact more newsworthy, CNN Money decided to say some things that were untrue and some that were meaningless. In the untrue category we get the shocking fact in the subhead that: " the interest Americans will have to pay to keep the country running over the next decade will reach unheard of levels." Actually, those of us old enough to remember back to the 90s have heard of these levels of interest payments. The Congressional Budget Office projects that interest payments will average 2.4 percent of GDP over the next decade. By contrast, interest payments averaged 3.1 percent of GDP in the decade from 1985 to 1994. In the dramatically irrelevant category, CNN Money told us that: "more than half of the $9 trillion in debt that Uncle Sam is expected to build up over the next decade will be interest." Hmmm, what on earth is that supposed to mean? Defense spending over the next decade is projected to be equal to more than 80 percent of the debt. I have no idea what this comparison is supposed to tell people. If we didn't have to pay interest on our debt, we could go more than halfway to balancing the budget over the next decade? If we got rid of the defense budget, then we could almost completely balance the budget. This ranks high in the level of silliness. CNN Money should have gotten a large contribution from the Peter Peterson Foundation or one of the other advocacy groups trying to scare people about the deficit for this piece. This certainly is not a news story.
--Dean Baker
