Federal Reserve Chair-designate Kevin Warsh is walking into what might be the least enviable job in Washington. If confirmed, he'll be managing monetary policy while the U.S. wrestles with a debt crisis not seen since the aftermath of World War II.

Here's the uncomfortable math: One in every five tax dollars collected now goes straight to interest payments. The Congressional Budget Office forecasts that by 2035, those interest costs will actually surpass what we spend on Medicare. That's not a typo.

According to Fortune, things could spiral even faster if interest rates climb, since every new trillion borrowed becomes more expensive to service. President Donald Trump has been loudly advocating for the Fed to slash rates, primarily to get those ballooning interest costs under control.

John Cochrane, an economist at Stanford's Hoover Institution, told the outlet that interest costs on the debt will be a major flashpoint between the Fed and the administration. Any White House, he noted, would push back hard against raising rates or even keeping them where they are.

Here's Warsh's dilemma: If the Fed caves and lowers rates as Trump wants, the budget picture improves temporarily. But that path likely means higher inflation down the road and eventually refinancing all that debt at even steeper rates.

Meanwhile, the Treasury will eventually need to extend the maturity profile of U.S. debt for safety reasons, which could make the interest situation even worse, Fortune reports.

The Bottom Line: No matter which path Warsh chooses, the U.S. faces a brutal fiscal future. Some economists argue the best long-term move is fighting inflation at all costs, even if it means Warsh becomes a target for presidential fury. The balancing act between taming inflation and managing the national debt will define his tenure and the country's economic health for years to come.