Between 2009 and 2019, US GDP grew from $14.45 trillion to $21.43 trillion - growing 48.3%. In that time, according to those figures, our annual interest payments have grown 49.8%. Those numbers are so close natural variability alone could explain the difference.
Why is that insane? The US is a mature economy.
Treading water in good years only to fall deeper in bad ones means collapse is unavoidable.
Without context, this is meaningless. Most people lack the context to understand what National Debt even is, let alone how it works in an economy; for proof of that, look at all the people who are, to all appearances, utterly convinced that China can "repossess" massive tracts of land because it "owns" some of our debt. The utter confusion of ideas required to hold such convictions is beyond me, but such notions are out there, and quite potent in certain circles.
Further, that was simply a random example. Substitute the global obesity crisis and the point stands.
Plenty of issues do evolve slowly. The Ogallala Aquifer is rather critical to the Midwest and has serious issues. Sure waiting two years isn’t going to make that much difference, but that just means we wasted another two years before doing anything.