This week Senate leaders reached a tentative spending deal that would raise defense and domestic budget caps for two years, tacking an additional $500 billion onto an already growing budget deficit.

That has fiscal hawks sounding the alarm. But does the deficit really matter?

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with economist Stephanie Kelton (@StephanieKelton), who argues the words "debt" and "deficit" have been "weaponized for political ends." Kelton is a professor of public policy and economics at Stony Brook University and former chief economist for the Senate Budget Committee Democratic staff.