President Donald Trump's Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, had to get corrected multiple times on his fuzzy math about the economy during a heated hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
The hearing was at many points a mess, with Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, admitting Trump would "likely" cave on tariff deadlines yet again, and having to be told to stop interrupting lawmakers.
One of the most remarkable moments came when Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) held him to account for how sluggish the economy has been since Trump's tariffs took effect, and Bessent unsuccessfully tried to deny this was the case.
Beyer noted that all the biggest periods of market strength during the Trump administration have always come when "the administration is in retreat from key policy areas ... is this embarrassing?"
"It isn't embarrassing," said Bessent. "I'm sorry, Congressman, but you seem not to have seen the economic data. The GDP growth has been quite substantial, job growth is solid—"
"GDP growth is half what it was last year, sir," Beyer interjected.
"The job growth is solid, and private sector job growth especially," Bessent repeated.
"Job growth is a third what it was all last year, sir," said Beyer.
"And if you'd like to talk about inflation, would you?" said Bessent.
Beyer said that inflation numbers look decent "so far," but that all economic reports he is reading indicate "the impact of the tariffs" is not yet fully baked into prices.
Bessent has previously faced an avalanche of criticism for claiming that the federal workers the Trump administration is firing can just go find work in factories producing American-made goods.
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