US Treasury Yields Hit Multi-Decade Highs as Debt Nears $40 Trillion, Charlie Bilello Says Government Spending ‘Like Drunken Sailors’

Radhika Anilkumar Nadig

Tue, August 18, 2026 at 10:31 PM GMT+3 5 min read

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U.S. Treasury borrowing costs climbed to multi-year highs last week, with the 30-year bond yield at auction reaching its highest level since 2001 as investors digested a record July budget deficit and a national debt nearing $40 trillion.

A Decade of Runaway Spending

Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at investment firm Creative Planning, said in a post on X that federal spending has grown far faster than tax revenue over the past decade, a gap that has more than doubled the national debt.

Over the last 10 years, US Federal Government Tax Revenue has increased 65% to $5.3 Trillion while Government Spending has increased 96% to $7.3 Trillion.
The result: a more than doubling of the US National Debt from $19 trillion to $39 trillion.
Video: https://t.co/9vaPqoODUl pic.twitter.com/H8WkTNdG1U

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) August 15, 2026

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He added that the debt alone has grown by over $550 billion since July.

"The Federal Government continues to borrow from our future to spend money like drunken sailors today. Everything they said about 'balancing the budget' was a lie," he said.

The US National Debt has increased by over $550 billion since July 1st.
The Federal Government continues to borrow from our future to spend money like drunken sailors today.
Everything they said about "balancing the budget" was a lie. https://t.co/En02K10iZ7 pic.twitter.com/OdCrJmfUGW

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) August 13, 2026

Bilello revisited a comment President Donald Trump made a year ago, pledging to pay down debt and potentially issue dividends to lower and middle-income Americans.

In the year since, he noted, the debt has grown by more than $3 trillion, no dividend materialized, and inflation has risen.

"Well, we're going to pay down debt. We have a lot of money coming in, much more money than the country has ever seen by hundreds of billions of dollars. And there could be a distribution or dividend to the people of our country. I would say for people that would be middle-income… https://t.co/nMFLo73rby

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) August 13, 2026

At the time of writing, the country's debt stood at $39.92 trillion.

Treasury Yields and Deficit Hit Multi-Decade Highs

The U.S. sold $25 billion of 30-year Treasury bonds on Thursday at a 5.216% yield, the highest since 2001.

That followed a $42 billion 10-year note auction on Wednesday that cleared at 4.683%, the highest borrowing cost for that maturity since 2007.

According to market commentator The Kobeissi Letter, the Treasury's July budget deficit surged $141 billion year-over-year to $432 billion, the largest July total on record, pushing the trailing 12-month deficit to $2 trillion.

The cost of servicing US debt is the highest in decades:
On Thursday, the US government sold $25 billion of 30Y Treasury bonds at a 5.216% yield, the highest auction yield since 2001.
This follows a $42 billion auction of 10Y Treasury notes on Wednesday that resulted in a… pic.twitter.com/yOTT7atWN2

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) August 16, 2026

The Backlash Builds

Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized the spending, saying, "we shouldn't be spending $432B, that we don't have, in a single month," and called for cuts to government size, spending, fraud, and welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants.

Veteran economist Peter Schiff said the national debt has surpassed $39.9 trillion and could hit $40 trillion by month-end, warning the Federal Reserve may respond by ramping up Treasury purchases, which he said could send consumer prices higher.

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

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