Budget a major boost for US military but raises deficit fears

WASHINGTON - The United States' two-year federal spending agreement passed in the early hours of Friday (Feb 9) in Washington contains the steepest increase in defence spending in about 15 years.

The problem, though - which applies to the entire budget - is whether that level of spending is sustainable beyond a year or two.

Spending on domestic social programmes like the opioid crisis and child health insurance was also hiked.

"Suddenly the US government decided to spend more on a lot of things that anyone thought it would," Dr Michael Mazarr, senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation told The Straits Times.

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