What's the Debt Ceiling and the National Debt?
Episode description
The federal government has always had debt. How much is too much, and how do politicians exploit it? This episode originally dropped in August 2022, but since the subject is in the news, we've been getting lots of questions about it!
SUPPORT OUR WORK - DONATE TO CIVICS 101 TODAY!
Since our nation's founding, the federal government has borrowed money from other governments, private investors, and businesses in order to operate. Over the last century, the debt ceiling, a Congressional cap on how much debt we can have, keeps getting higher and higher. We talk about how the national debt works, how it's been used as political leverage, and how that impacts the health of our economy.
Louise Sheiner, senior economics fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Michael Dorf, Constitutional law professor at Cornell Law, help us make sense of trillions of dollars in debt.
- CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE SHOW AND CHECK OUT OUR NEW TOTE BAG!
- CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
- To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
- Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!