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This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, December 18th, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The new spending approved by the current president

could exceed the new spending approved by either of the last two

presidents.

And we're just wrapping up Joe Biden's first year in office.

And that's to say nothing of unanticipated demands for spending,

like attempts to mitigate the costs of a global pandemic.

Jonathan Bidlack of the R Street Institute

discusses the implications.

As we record this, it's early December

and build back better in whatever form it currently sits is probably not exactly what will pass if it does.

How big is the spending that Joe Biden, you know, we're not even through his first year as president?

How much spending is he approved?

Yeah, it's pretty big. I mean, so if you look at this last year, there are essentially

...