alt Hacker NewsCorrect me if I'm wrong but isn't there an inherent vicious cycle in that if the price gets too high our ability to pay it off becomes uncertain, at which point the premium for the risk would shoot up dramatically (and so on)?
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Nope. Government debt has existed for a long time in the US. There is no plan to pay it off ever. Headlines will scream that the debt is too high for a long time to come.
Government debt yields on the short end are set by the Fed. Long yields are "set by the market" based on inflation fears, and mostly guessing what the Fed will set rates to over the next 10+ years.
Japan had way higher Debt-to-GDP for decades, yet the long term yields were low. Why? The central bank said "we anticipate yields to be set low for a long time" and did so for a long time. Recently they said they are going to "respond to inflation" like all other central banks and suprise, surprise the long end is creeping up. "Bond vigilantes" came into existence as soon as the central bank changed their policy.
The US government only borrows in the us dollars. It's not possible that they won't be able to pay it off.
The yield increase is basically the market pricing in the interest rate increases since they're expected now.
That's correct. The root cause is that the government is making promises it can't keep, which make those promises worthless. The correction is usually that that government falls, and a new government starts making smaller, more achievable promises that restores trust in it.