3:25 p.m. — With the economy in the tank and rising federal debt, the costs of servicing the federal debt is skyrocketing. According to FY 2006 budget, federal budget net interest payments were $177 billion in 2005. In this year’s budget, the net interest costs are going to skyrocket to $260 billion in FY 2009. And net interest doesn’t even include the interest the government has to pay hundreds of billions borrowed from surplus non-discretionary accounts like Social Security.