WASHINGTON (AP) — Scott Bessent, candidate for US Treasury plans to say Thursday during his confirmation hearing that President-elect Donald Trump has the opportunity to trigger “a new economic golden age”.
According to testimony prepared for The Associated Press, Bessent will say the United States must secure vulnerable supply chains, impose sanctions to address national security concerns “and, above all, we must ensure that the U.S. dollar remains the world’s reserve currency.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are expected to question Bessent’s stance on taxes, tariffs, trade and other issues during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary is a South Carolina billionaire who, before becoming a Trump donor and adviser, donated to various Democratic causes in the early 2000s, including Trump’s presidential campaign. Al Gore.
He also worked for George Soros, a major supporter of the Democrats.
Bessent was one of several people Trump considered for the role. Asset took his time before settling in on Bessent as his candidate. He also mentioned billionaire investors John Paulson and Howard Lutnick, whom Trump chose as his nominee for Commerce secretary.
The Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for serving as the president’s fiscal policy advisor and managing the public debt. He would also be a member of the President’s National Economic Council.
If confirmed, Bessent will oversee huge agencies within the Treasury Department, including the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS received a massive increase in funding thanks to Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, although that money has been under constant threat of being cut.
Trump expects him to help reset the global trade order, enable multibillion-dollar tax cuts, guarantee inflation remains under controlmanage a skyrocketing national debt while keeping financial markets confident.
“Productive investments that grow the economy must take priority over wasteful spending that spurs inflation,” Bessent plans to say in his testimony.
Senators are expected to question the fund manager for hours about his views on cryptocurrency, Trump-era tax cuts and potential conflicts of interest.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Finance Committee, sent Bessent more than 100 written questions Friday, questioning him on topics including agency independence, housing, treasury personnel issues and financial stability oversight.
Bessent supported expanding provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Trump signed into law during his first year in office. Estimates from various economic analyzes of the costs of various tax cuts range from nearly $6 trillion to $10 trillion over 10 years.
It calls for spending cuts and changes to existing taxes to offset the costs that extending tax cuts would add to the federal deficit.
