Crapo, Colleagues Sound the Alarm on Rapidly Rising Cost of Servicing National Debt

Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined a group of Senate Republican colleagues in sending a letter to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) highlighting concerns with the rising cost of servicing the nearly $34 trillion national debt.

“Driven by out-of-control federal spending and rising interest rates, the U.S. spent $659 billion on servicing the federal debt in Fiscal Year 2023, a $184 billion increase from the previous year and nearly double the cost from just three years ago,” the Senators wrote.  “Since March 2022, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates eleven times, pursuing such an aggressive rate-hiking campaign in an effort to combat the out-of-control inflation that has hung over the U.S. economy for years as a result of trillions of dollars in reckless partisan spending passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Biden.  Future rate hikes and higher-for-longer rates are likely as elevated inflation remains a major concern for American households who continue to see the purchasing power of their wages erode.”

Senators Steve Daines (R-Montana), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), Todd Young (R-Indiana) and James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) joined in sending the letter.

Read the full letter here.