Passed last week in a 284-149 vote in the House, split heavily along party lines, the two-year compromise budget deal reached between President Trump and Democratic leadership has passed the Senate Thursday, 67-28.
The $2.78 trillion ($1.48 trillion military spending) measure lifts
the cap on the size of the US debt. This is an increase over the
already-passed NDAA for 2020, and military spending will now outpace the
entire rest of discretionary spending.
Since the expansion of the debt amounts to spending more money that the
government flat out doesn’t have, this legislation also authorizes the
Treasury Department to issue more debt in the form of bonds to raise
money to cover the difference.
This compromise being between Trump and the Democrats, the Senate bill
passed heavily on Senate Democrats’ support, while the vote among Senate
Republicans was 30-23, with many objecting to the growing debt.
Despite debt concerns, Republican hawks broadly voted in favor of this bill, because it was a
spending increase, and as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that’s the
“number one priority” for Republicans. Even then, a number of them were
grousing about the fact that the spending on the military could’ve
conceivably been even higher.
Divided Senate Approves Huge Two-Year Military Budget
$2.78 trillion plan spends more on military than anything else
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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