[emrosenf]

According to this NYT article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/business/23rates.html), debt service was $202B in 2009. It is projected to go to $700B in 2019.

To put that in perspective, $500B more than covers what we spend on education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course, this assumes that our interest rates stay the same. I don't see how this is possible as our debt/GDP rises. I fear we are seriously choking ourselves.

[jrockway]

I don't think we are choking ourselves. Loaning money to the US government means the government can use all its resources to pay you back. We have not tapped any of those resources yet; taxes in the US are pretty low compared to the rest of the developed world.

Also keep in mind that the government can loan money at a higher interest rate than it can borrow it at. (I am not sure how much income this generates, though.)

[kiba]

Higher taxes might actually lead to lower tax revenues or a tax revolt. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

[philwelch]

We're not so far down the Laffer curve that raising taxes would lower revenues, and it's unlikely we will be anytime soon.

[jacobolus]

Moreover, the Laffer curve is mostly an absurdity.

Martin Gardner’s improved depiction: http://books.google.com/books?id=oXEaTdstD7gC&pg=PA133&#...

[bd_at_rivenhill]

On the other hand, technology has significantly reduced the cost of tax avoidance for high net worth individuals compared to what it was during the Clinton era.