Checks and Balance: Size matters
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Biden wants a big infrastructure bill to follow the stimulus cash he has handed out. It would add up to a $5 trillion overhaul of America. A splurge on this scale has long been taboo in mainstream politics. Is big government back?
The Economist’s public policy editor Sacha Nauta and Henry Curr, our economics editor, join the discussion.
John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Jon Fasman.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The government of the United States might just be the most successful organisation in |
| 0:06.7 | human history. |
| 0:07.7 | It's a thought experiment perhaps best left to train historians, but glance at the history |
| 0:12.9 | of the 20th century and the list of missions accomplished with the help of the American taxpayer |
| 0:17.4 | is startling. |
| 0:19.3 | Global fascism and communism defeated? |
| 0:21.9 | Check. |
| 0:22.9 | Man spaceflight? |
| 0:24.7 | Check. |
| 0:25.7 | The internet? |
| 0:26.7 | Job done. |
| 0:28.8 | But for the past 40 years at least, big government has had a really bad press. |
| 0:34.4 | Might the pandemic change that? |
| 0:37.0 | This is Chex and Balance. |
| 0:38.6 | I'm John Pradov, the economist's US editor-in-chief, each week we take one big theme shaping |
| 0:46.8 | American politics and explore it in depth. |
| 0:55.4 | Today is big government back. |
| 1:08.5 | President Biden's next big legislative push is taking shape, a whopping infrastructure |
| 1:12.6 | bill to add to the economic rescue package past last month. |
| 1:16.5 | It all amounts to a $5 trillion overhaul of America. |
| 1:20.8 | In this episode, we'll find out how unprecedented the social safety net cast during the |
| 1:25.3 | pandemic really is. |
... |
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