Swamp Notes: Do Republicans still care about debt?
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Republicans are often known as the party of fiscal responsibility. This week, Swamp Notes unravels the US House of Representatives’ “big, beautiful” bill and its uncertain path forward in the Senate. Edward Luce, US national editor and columnist, and James Politi, Washington bureau chief, explain what made congressional Republicans go all in on big spending, tax cuts and more debt.
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Mentioned in this podcast:
Read Edward Luce’s column on the new ‘moron premium’ for Treasuries
US House passes Donald Trump’s showpiece tax bill
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Swamp Notes is produced by Lauren Fedor, Katya Kumkova and Henry Larson. Topher Forhecz is the acting co-head of audio. Special thanks to Pierre Nicholson.
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Transcript
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| 0:30.3 | Hey guys, it's Mark Filipino with a quick announcement before the show. We've mentioned this a few |
| 0:35.2 | times, but I wanted to remind you that Swamp Notes time |
| 0:38.1 | on the FT News Briefing feed is coming to an end. But it's not because we're going away. |
| 0:43.2 | It's because there's a brand new podcast feed just for Swamp Notes, which you can go find right now, |
| 0:50.0 | whether you subscribe to the FT or not, wherever you get your podcasts. Now, don't worry, we're going to stick around this feed for a little longer, |
| 0:57.4 | but go ahead and subscribe before the show moves to its new permanent home. |
| 1:02.0 | All right, that's it for me. Enjoy this week's show. |
| 1:07.6 | President Donald Trump's big, beautiful tax bill is making its way to the Senate, |
| 1:12.6 | and Republicans certainly have some feelings about it. |
| 1:16.8 | We need to focus on spending, spending, spending. |
| 1:20.3 | But other GOP senators want to cut some and spend even more. |
| 1:26.6 | Right now, the big spenders are winning. It all boils down to one |
| 1:30.6 | big philosophical question. Can the U.S. keep borrowing? This is Swamp Notes, the weekly |
| 1:42.1 | podcast from The Financial Times, where we talk about all the things happening in U.S. politics, finance, and the economy. I'm Mark Filipino, and this week we're asking, do Republicans still care about fiscal responsibility? Here with me to discuss as Edward Luce, he's the F.T's U.S. national editor and columnist. He also co-writes our Swamp Notes newsletter. Hey, Ed. |
| 2:02.0 | Great to be with you, Matt. And we've also got James Pallidi. He's the FTs Washington Bureau Chief. |
| 2:07.0 | Hey, James. Hi, Mark. So, James, among other things, this bill makes permanent, President Trump's tax cuts that he introduced in his first term, and the estimate is that it will |
| 2:18.5 | raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. |
... |
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