The confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, was relatively calm compared to the combative questioning other nominees faced this week. But senators did come ready to fight about one thing: this year’s tax debate.
Bessent seemed happy for the tax negotiations to take center stage. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from 2017 is set to expire this year, and Bessent wants them to become permanent, calling it the “single most important economic issue of the day.”
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts could add $4.6 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade. But Bessent repeated a refrain in defense of the cuts during the hearing: “We do not have a revenue problem in the United States of America, we have a spending problem.”
Democrats laid out their core argument against keeping the tax cuts in place: it will lead to cuts from essential programs. They pushed Bessent to go on the record on how exactly he planned to solve this “spending problem” — and who could be hurt by it.
“I want to emphasize President Trump has said Social Security and Medicare will not be cut,” Bessent told senators near the beginning of the hearing. Later on, in response to questions from Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján, he was noncommittal about other programs.
“Medicaid? It’s the business of Congress to do the budget. I am in favor of empowering states, and I believe that for some states that will be an increase, for some states that will be a decrease,” Bessent said. And expanded broadband internet from the Biden-era infrastructure law? “It is my understanding that much of the allocated funding hasn’t been dispersed yet,” Bessent said.
“A lot of folks back in South Carolina, including some of your farming neighbors, are getting connectivity because of these programs,” Luján pushed back. “You might just need to chat with them about the importance of what this program means.”
The Senate Finance Committee chair, Mike Crapo — who’ll be leading much of the negotiations on the coming tax bill — argued that letting the tax cuts expire could limit economic growth.
“The Tax Foundation has indicated that if we do sustain these tax cuts and protect them from expiring and stop this tax increase, that the extension of this policy would increase the growth of the GDP of the United States by 1.1.% over time,” Crapo said, pointing to research from the center-right think tank.
Republican Sen. Steve Daines tried out his argument for keeping the tax cuts: “I’ve expressed my support for permanency because we add uncertainty here in Congress with expiring tax code provisions,” even as the expiration date was a budgetary requirement because of the impact on the deficit.
While the tax fight stayed top of mind, there were few fireworks between senators and the man who would implement Congress’ plans.
One Republican joked that Bessent looked like his heart rate was 40. Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse praised his preparedness: “I think you’re the first person in a nomination who’s actually done the reading that has been proposed.”
Two progressives, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, pointed to the unlikely common ground they have with Trump and tried to pin Bessent down in agreement. For Sanders, it was on a 10% interest cap on credit cards; for Warren, on repealing the debt limit. Bessent demurred on committing to either.
But Warren, in her final moments of questioning, returned to the tax fight — elevating the fundamental question driving the debate: Who is going to pay for America’s deficit?
“Is there any billionaire rich enough who you wouldn’t support a tax cut for going forward?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked.
For Bessent, and many of the Republicans in the room intent on keeping the cuts in place, “That’s not where the money is.”
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Claire Heddles is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.