U.S. 'Debt Ceiling' Deal Is for War and Austerity

All earlier Republican demands with regard to holding Department of Defense spending at FY2022 levels (a $75 billion effective cut in the monstrous U.S. military budget), as part of a potential agreement with President Joe Biden to increase the U.S. Treasury’s debt limit, were ultimately turned into their opposite by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership team. The agreement just announced by Biden and McCarthy, set for Congressional votes beginning June 1, provides for military spending to rise in FY2024 by up to $88 billion (getting into the $1 trillion/year vicinity). Non-defense discretionary spending, on the other hand, will be frozen at FY2023 levels for FY2024 and would be capped at increases of 1% (about $7-8 billion annually, well below inflation) for Fiscal Years 2025 and 2026. Biden’s worst fraud, the purely “green finance” Inflation Reduction Act, was left alone.