before the coronavirus was $22.7 trillion. the total debt. the debt held by individuals and the debt that the government owes other parts of the government. by february of 2001 after joe biden comes into office it s $27.8 trillion. we passed all of these $3 trillion bill in march and several, $100 billion in two different bills, passed another trillion dollar bill in december. biden comes in and has 27.8. since then at the beginning of this month it s 28.9. so in just over a year less than two years we have added 6.2 trillion to the national debt. a 27% increase. now we re talking about as of friday we now know that the cost of the build back better bill could be as much as $3.3 trillion if you take out all the gimmicks. that s what joe manchin is concerned about. joe biden doesn t seem to understand that. dana: so does this sound
and nigeria. and he had lots of public events and press engagements. and attended a press conference and a summit in one of the countries. they said they followed all protocol. social distancing and mask wearing. in the video wearing a mask and all that. that speaks to how quickly it s spreading in this country. it s not clear if he caught covid-19 here in the country or during his travels. it could be anywhere. so far the positivity rate the last 24 hours is 28.9%. south africa is approaching an all time record of daily cases which are reported back in july. so even though early data indicates that this omicron variant appears to be milder. even though it s easily transmissible. it s cause for concern and that s why the president has been encouraging south africa to get vaccinated. that is truly one of the strongest ways of protecting themselves as the country tries to learn more and the world tries to learn more.
credits, the u.s. remains far behind. this is from the organization of economic cooperation and development. it s the organization of developed countries. france spent 31% of its gdp on social services for its citizens. belgium, 28.9%. the united states, 18.7%. for all you people worried that weir slipping into a socialist country, although the build back better plan has been scaled down it s still big and it s transformational for the country and most reasonable people would agree that america still has a very long way to go. people like me worry that this was our best chance. we re still in the midst of a pandemic that pushed millions of people off of a financial cliff and most which haven t recovered and it has largely dried up. if there was ever a moment for
and now for more on our top story today. students have received another set of record grades in a year of covid disruption to exams in england, wales and northern ireland. the government cancelled exams for a second consecutive year, meaning pupils grades are based on their teachersjudgment. top grades, seven or above, teachersjudgment. top grades, seven orabove, rose teachersjudgment. top grades, seven or above, rose 2.7 percentage points to 28.9%, while those graded four and above, seen as good passes, rose zero .8 points, to 78.3%. this is a smaller rise than in 2020, the first time teacher grades were used. last year, top grades rose by nine percentage point and good passes were up 5.4 points. the grades, calculate it by teachers, have been taken from a combination of mock exams, coursework, and tests. speaking from a school in swindon,