Obama inks funding Bill

US President Barack Obama signed into law a catchall government-funding Bill that ends the 2013 budget fight and locks in $85 billion in spending cuts he opposes.

With Obama's signature yesterday, day-to-day operations of cabinet departments and federal agencies will continue without interruption through September 30, the end of the financial year. With the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration taking effect, the spending will amount to about $984 billion. The previous funding authorisation was due to expire today.

The across-the-board cuts usher in a new "age of austerity," said Darrell West, director of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy group.

The spending reductions undercut Obama's push to increase funding for research, education and infrastructure, which he has said are necessary to bolster economic security for middle- income Americans. He continues to seek a deal with congressional Republicans that would include raising revenue through taxes along with making budget cuts.

"I don't see how sequester, root-canal budgeting, co- exists with what I think is a robust investment agenda," Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to Vice-President Joe Biden, said in a telephone interview March 25.