How right you are, TucsonBones! I remember a time at the end of the 1970s when about 1/4 of the U.S. budget went to paying interest on the national debt.
One reason to smack down inflation NOW is that the interest rate on longer-term Treasury bonds will rise if bond traders believe that inflation will stay high for the long term. The Fed’s current policy to raise the fed funds rate now (resulting in a slight rise in Treasury bond yields) is like nasty chemotherapy to treat a potentially fatal cancer.
Wendy