Marketplace
Marketplace
Marketplace
Time for a national debt history lesson
26 minutes Posted Jul 1, 2025 at 10:20 pm.
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The Senate just narrowly passed the latest version of the GOP tax and spending bill, and the House will vote on it tomorrow. Nonpartisan experts at the Congressional Budget Office say the bill will add more than $3 trillion to the national debt, which is already a whopping $36.2 trillion. In this episode, a few economic historians tell us how we got here. Plus: Construction spending falls again, Home Depot goes after large-scale pros and the stock market rallies.


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