REUTERS, Washington

Republicans and Democrats are touting a hastily-written debt ceiling deal that staves off a devastating US default, but does little to slow a massive buildup of total federal debt now on pace to exceed $50 trillion in a decade.

The deal’s first problem, budget experts say, is it only curbs non-defense discretionary spending, or just about one-seventh of this year’s $6.4 trillion federal budget. Defense, veterans’ care and big-ticket safety-net programs are spared.

Longer term, it fails to alter the US’s chronic and growing revenue shortfall, thanks to health and retirement spending on the country’s aging population and Congress’s failure to raise taxes.

“If you’re worried about the deficit and debt problem, this thing does nothing,” said Dennis Ippolito, a public policy professor and fiscal expert at Southern Methodist University.

“What you’ve got in place is essentially Democratic spending policy and Republican tax policy, and there is nothing in the works that suggests any change to either of those,” he said.

The deal to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until January 2025 holds non-defense discretionary spending largely flat this year, with a 1 per cent increase in fiscal 2024.