Rising interest rates since early 2022 have increased the financial burden of public debt interest on the federal governments in Canada and the US. But because the US government accumulated so much more debt during the last 20 years, the impact on them is currently much bigger. The chart also shows the huge debt interest run-up in the 1980s and early 1990s. In early 1991 interest payments accounted for over a third of all federal spending. Former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge remembers this well and has been issuing public warnings to Canadians not to allow it to happen again. The remedy is to keep the federal debt-to-GDP ratio stable or declining.