President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Treasury chief, billionaire Scott Bessent, received blowback on social media after claiming that Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy would prevent "economic calamity."
Bessent testified Thursday before Congress for the position of Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. If confirmed, Bessent would join the long list of millionaires and billionaires who will be populating the new Trump administration.
"This is the single most important economic issue of the day — this is pass/fail," Bessent said. "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.
"We will see a gigantic middle-class tax increase. We will see a child tax credit cap. We will see the deductions halved ... it has the potential for a sudden stop. And, as I said, traditionally with these sudden stops, it falls on working Americans."
ALSO READ: Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife
Podcaster Brian Taylor Cohen retweeted video of Bessent testifying, and posted to social media, "There it is. Trump’s Treasury nominee just said “extending” Trump’s tax handouts for billionaires is their TOP priority: “This is the single most important economic issue of the day.”
Another person wrote, Surprising? No. Disappointing? Yes.
And still another, "$4.6T billionaire tax cut off the backs of average Americans. The oligarchy must be fed, peasants."
The self-described nonpartisan research and policy Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report in in June 2024 titled, "The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises" adding that "A 2025 Course Correction Is Needed."
During Thursday's hearing, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID), supported Bessent's view that the tax cuts for the wealthy would help ordinary Americans.
"The Tax Foundation has indicated that if we do sustain these tax cuts and protect them from expiring and stop this tax increase, the extension of this policy would increase the growth of the GDP in the United States by 1.1% over time. Similarly...The National Association of Manufacturers indicates if we don't extend this tax relief, that there will be a 1.1% reduction in growth of jobs and development in our economy. It seems to me, that as we are talking about what to do for American, that protecting America from a 1% reduction versus a 1% growth in GDP is a critical objective."
Bessent concluded, "I would just say that we saw the power 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."
Watch the clip below via CNN.