Washington D.C. – During today’s U.S. Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, the President-elect’s choice for U.S. Treasury Secretary doubled down on his support for the deficit ballooning trickle-down Trump tax scam benefiting big corporations and the super wealthy, and the Trump plan for a national sales tax that is expected to increase prices and leave the typical U.S. family paying as much as $3,900 more annually.

“The reason billionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager Scott Bessent is so enthusiastic about another Trump tax giveaway to price-gouging corporations and billionaires is because he’s in the exclusive club that will benefit most while working people pay the price,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “Of course Bessent is a cheerleader for the Trump national sales tax plan that will jack up costs for U.S. families by thousands every year, because insiders like him won’t feel it. Trump’s choice to run the Treasury Department embodies how the President-elect’s talk about helping working people was just that – talk.” 

Here Are Key Questions Bessent Failed to Address Today:

Harmful Economic Policies & Trump Tax Giveaways

  • How does Bessent realistically expect to reduce the federal deficit to 3% while prioritizing drastic, deficit-exploding tax cuts geared towards big corporations and billionaires such as himself?  Bessent has claimed that he wants to reduce the federal budget deficit to 3% of GDP, yet he has advised extending Trump’s 2017 law, which primarily benefited ultra-wealthy Americans and large corporations and failed to deliver the promised benefits for working families. Bessent has said that his “policy priority” will be to deliver Trump’s tax promises, including making the 2017 tax giveaways permanent. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that extending these giveaways would add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.

Trump Tax Giveaways

  • How can Bessent honestly claim his plans will help working families when they barely saw wage growth trickle down to them following the passage of the initial tax bill? Bessent is on record defending Trump’s flawed 2017 tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest Americans. This new round of tax giveaways for the rich will cost trillions at the expense of working families, similar to the 2017 law, which primarily benefited wealthy households and large corporations and failed to deliver the promised benefits for working families. Specifically, one study found that working families would fare even worse under a new round of extended Trump tax giveaways, with the poorest fifth of Americans receiving just 1% of tax benefits and the wealthiest fifth of Americans reaping nearly two-thirds of tax benefits. 

Inflationary Tariffs

  • How can Bessent possibly assure Americans that tariffs levied by the administration – effectively a national sales tax — would not encourage inflation and raise prices on working people when so many economists disagree with that assessment? Bessent has defended President-elect Trump’s proposed tariffs, claiming they are a “one-time price adjustment” and “not inflationary.” Multiple economists have challenged this claim, with 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists notably warning that President-elect Trump’s agenda would “reignite” inflation. 

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