> US’s unique ability to essentially endlessly deficit spend
This is not unique to the US, nor even unique to countries. Almost all countries deficit spend endlessly, which is fine as long as it's offset by economic growth. And that deficit spending can speed up that economic growth.
The US's uniqueness is being massively wealthy, so its deficits are bigger.
The US has the fourth highest debt:GDP ratio amongst OECD countries; only Japan, Greece, and Italy are higher, whose high debts are mainly due to severe economic problems, and are not offset by growth.
The US is unique in that (thus far) its massive deficit spending has been offset by growth, although it remains to be seen how long that’s sustainable.
Debt to GDP is a useless metric. The US has a uniquely low interest on its debt. Interest payments as a fraction of GDP are less than 2%, in the middle of the post-War range of 1.1 to 3.2% of GDP.
That's as a fraction of revenue which is distorted due to our fragmented federal system and relatively low national tax rates. Interest as a fraction of GDP is https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYOIGDA188S
If you had gone to the primary source of the data in your link you would have seen the prominent limitation, to wit: "Because budgetary accounts may not include all central government units (such as social security funds), they usually provide an incomplete picture. In federal states the central government accounts provide an incomplete view of total public finance."
Ok, but then how can you compare that to other countries to say the US is higher/lower? I haven't been able to find a unified source of raw interest payments by country (not as a % of revenue).
This is not unique to the US, nor even unique to countries. Almost all countries deficit spend endlessly, which is fine as long as it's offset by economic growth. And that deficit spending can speed up that economic growth.
The US's uniqueness is being massively wealthy, so its deficits are bigger.