The White House on Monday proposed taking an additional decade to balance the US budget as it delivered a spending plan that relies on aggressive growth predictions to close a yawning budget gap drawing increased scrutiny from financial markets.
The new $4.4tn plan for 2019, which includes a plan for $200bn in new infrastructure spending over the next decade, came just days after Donald Trump signed off on a two-year spending bill that includes large increases in defence and domestic outlays which are baked into the new budget proposal.
The move towards freer spending coincides with growing anxiety in financial markets over the prospect of rising interest rates and the wisdom of injecting fiscal stimulus into an economy at or near full employment.