This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, June 26, 2018. I'm Caleb Brown.

A boost of tens of billions of dollars in military spending comes just as the U.S. is projected to hit trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.

So does this new spending truly enhance American security.

Cato's Carolyn Dormany comments.

We knew that the administration wanted to add a bunch of spending,

but what are the House and Senate adding,

or what have they added?

Exactly. This is a huge increase.

The current appropriations bill right now for defense is about

$675 billion for 2019.

That's $606-ish billion for the base

and then $68 billion for overseas contingency funds.

Basically anything that is going on in the Middle East.

A lot of day-to-day expenses that are being incurred will get paid for by that OCO fund.

But you know, it's not just the administration

asking for huge plus-ups.

There are also still some congressional politics

going on. The House added in a couple of extra littoral combat

ships, which has, I think, you know, it's in the news.

That program is not performing the way that we hoped it would and

the administration only requested one and the House said well how about three

so we're gonna be spending about 1.6 billion next year, buying three of those if the House gets its way?

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