Extending Trump Tax Cuts Is ‘Single Most Important Economic Issue,’ Treasury Nominee Says

Scott Bessent, the nominee for Treasury Secretary, told lawmakers on Thursday that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts is the most important economic issue for the incoming Trump administration to address.

The comments came as Bessent was grilled during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.

“This is the single most important economic issue of the day,” Bessent said. “This is pass-fail.”

“If we do not fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend, then we will be facing an economic calamity, and, as always, with financial instability, that falls on the middle- and working-class people,” he said. “We will see a gigantic middle-class tax increase. We will see the child tax credit halved. We will see the deductions halved.”

In economic terms, it could be a “sudden stop,” Bessent said.

“Traditionally with these sudden stops it falls on working Americans,” he said.

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The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was one of President-elect Donald Trump’s signature accomplishments during his first term.

During his campaign, Trump promised to renew the tax cuts should he be elected. He also called for other tax policies, including no tax on tips and ending taxes on Social Security benefits.

“We saw the power of these tax cuts in ’18, ’19, and going into January of ’20 before they were interrupted by COVID and the great success that we had,” Bessent said during Thursday’s hearing.

Democrats have claimed that the tax cuts benefit the wealthy more than the middle class, but in 2022, the Congressional Budget Office said tax revenue was actually expected to increase by hundreds of billions of dollars following the tax cuts.

Bessent said the country’s economic problem is spending.

“We do not have a revenue problem in the United States. We have a spending problem,” he told the senators.

The Biden administration has issued many expensive executive orders, such as multiple student loan forgiveness actions.

Over the last three decades, Bessent has been successful as the chief investment officer at George Soros’ hedge fund. He founded several firms and taught economic history at Yale, his alma mater.

He would also be the first openly gay Treasury Secretary.

Bessent is from South Carolina and was introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who urged Senate Democrats to vote for him based on his qualifications, not politics.

“If your goal is to play like the election didn’t happen, then I guess you’ll vote no,” Graham said.

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