The erosion of the American tax base
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reduced taxes for 85% of households, disproportionately benefiting high-income earners, all eyes are on the GOP’s approach to taxation. But they’re not the only ones, as Democrats, too, seek to cash in on the tax cut strategy. “Marketplace” Host Kai Ryssdal spoke with Annie Lowrey, a staff writer at The Atlantic, about what that dwindling tax base could mean for public works and our national debt. But first: Whirlpool reports “recession-level low” demand, the first quarter’s lower-than-expected productivity, and a look into how some business owners are approaching tariff refunds.
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Transcript
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| 0:59.6 | notes and as always, thanks. |
| 1:05.1 | Worker productivity is a key |
| 1:07.5 | measure of this economy. What |
| 1:09.8 | happens, though, if it's robots and AI that are being productive? |
| 1:15.0 | From American public media, this is Marketplace. |
| 1:24.6 | In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Rizal. It is Thursday, today, 7 May. Good as always to have you along, everybody. |
| 1:34.3 | It doesn't get a whole lot of headline love. Worker productivity doesn't. It's not one of the A-listers like jobs or GDP, though it probably ought to be given as critical as it is to the growth of this |
| 1:45.9 | economy? We learned this morning productivity growth slowed a bit in the first quarter. It increased |
| 1:51.8 | just eight-tenths of one percent, growth did. That's according to the Bureau of Labor |
| 1:56.1 | Statistics. Year on year, though, growth comes in at a satisfyingly more robust at 2.9%. |
| 2:02.4 | And that's happening. |
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