$2.3 trillion in a single year is clearly and obviously runaway debt growth; think about it— the entire national debt didn't reach $2.3 trillion until 1987.

By then the country was 211 years old, and it had been through a revolution, a civil war, two world wars, and the Great Depression. Now Congress adds that much in a single year.

Rising debt has many consequences, including inflation: when the government spends crazy amounts of money that it doesn't have, that means more dollars chasing the same amount of goods and services. Prices go up.

In short, this mountain of debt is one of the big reasons for today's sky-high cost of living.

What's really bizarre is that Inflation affects EVERYONE. Yet hardly anyone understands that the root cause of the inflation is government spending.

It might be even crazier how little attention this story receives. The media chimes in whenever the debt hits a milestone; when the national debt crossed $40 trillion in August, there were a bunch of stories from the New York Times to CNN.

But that lasted for about a day. Then they went right back to their usual themes about racism, sexism, etc.

It seems like every other issue is more important than the debt. Just watch any random episode of The View and you'll see a window into the topics monopolizing Americans' attention instead. People are whipped into a frenzy over gender-affirming care for prison inmates, the Lincoln Memorial's reflecting pool, and a pilot who stabbed his captain on a flydubai flight.

Attention is a scarce resource. So Congress does nothing about excessive spending because voters aren't paying attention to the debt.

The bond market, on the other hand, is absolutely paying attention.

The investors who lend money to the US government watch this complete lack of responsibility year after year. And they know there are obvious ways to cut the deficit.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress's own auditor, estimates that between $233 billion and $521 billion is lost to fraud every year. Yet Congress won't lift a finger to stop it.

At some point, lenders don't feel like loaning more money to a government that won't even stop obvious fraud. And it's a major reason why bond yields have skyrocketed very quickly.

The 10-year Treasury yield went from about 4.6% in early August to above 5.3% on October 1, its highest level since 2002.