EconoFact Chats

EconoFact Chats


Unpacking Tariff Uncertainty, the Budget Bill, and a Debt Downgrade

June 01, 2025

EconoFact Chats regularly hosts a panel discussion with top economic journalists. Since the panel last met in March, the House passed the 'big, beautiful budget bill,' Moody’s has downgraded U.S. debt, universities face stiff funding challenges, and tariff policy continues to be volatile. Binyamin Appelbaum (The New York Times), Scott Horsley (NPR), Larry Edelman (Boston Globe), and Heather Long (The Washington Post) discuss how policy uncertainty is playing out on the ground, what the proposed spending cuts could mean for lower and middle income Americans, and whether an increasingly uncertain fiscal picture could affect the willingness of foreign investors to keep financing U.S. debt.