Since you started watching the News Hour tonight,

our nation's debt has grown by more than $140 million.

Its total sum is $37 trillion.

There is mounting concern in some quarters over how soon that ballooning debt

will impact the lives of everyday Americans.

As economics correspondent Paul Salman explains,

simply paying the interest on that debt is already swallowing a larger portion of the federal

budget. Interest on the national debt paid to investors for lending the U.S. money. In return,

they get U.S. government IOUs, treasuries,

the interest rate on which tends to rise as we borrow evermore to cover the growing gap

between expenses and revenues.

When I look at our fiscal situation, the words that come to my mind are daunting, challenging,

difficult. Why daunting?

Well, one tasty way to depict the interest problem, a budget pie.

Okay, here's the pie back in 2015.

Interest on the debt?

A low cal 6% slice. But today, 13% more than double the share

just a decade ago. Why? As we issue more and more debt, more and more U.S. Treasuries,

then investors are going to demand more for that. For that, and another reason, too, inflation.

Which makes the debt worth less.

You get paid back in dollars that don't buy as much as when you lent them.

The burden of the debt every year is rising and putting a strain on our finances.

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