Interest payments on the debt are now so large that the spending is higher than the outlays for the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Homeland Security, Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the U.S. Coronavirus Refundable Credits scheme—combined.
That is a very different phenomenon. Those countries owed money in a foreign currency, namely US dollars. The US also owes in US dollars, but that is its own domestic currency, which it can print at will.
The US has no need to take on these USD loans, because it is the issuer of that very currency.
So why is the US borrowing its own currency? To give the wealthy a safe place to park their capital with interest. Why would the US do that? Because the wealthy want it to do that, and they run the state.
I wasn’t thinking of hyper inflation due to debts denominated in foreign currency. More just about corrupt leaders.