Scott Bessent’s Disdain for the Working ClassHouse Committee Hearing Reveals Ugly Side of the Treasury SecretaryGuest article by Max from UNFTR After a whirlwind trip to continue negotiations with trade delegates from China to (supposedly) iron out President Trump’s insane tariff war, a jet-lagged Scott Bessent in all his smug glory sat before the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss a wide range of topics—from tariffs and income tax to the potential impact of the Big Beautiful Bill Act making its way through the Senate. Predictably, the House Republicans showered him with praise for his steady hand and for making such a long trip to do his job. House Democrats, on the other hand, were less receptive. These committee hearings tend to be political theater and grandstanding platforms for congresspeople looking to score points on social media and in their respective echo chambers. But every so often, there are revealing exchanges that tell us something more. Three exchanges in particular stand out today that reveal Bessent’s shocking level of disdain for the American people. Defunding the IRSDuring an exchange regarding cuts to IRS staffing levels, Bessent said the following:
First of all, the LeBron analogy is the ultimate false equivalency. Staffing auditors to fill positions in a severely understaffed IRS is not the same thing as putting the Treasury Secretary on the basketball court. Beyond this clear falsehood, the subtext of his statement shows a complete disdain for working people. To suggest that you need to be LeBron-level capable in your chosen field to follow instructions for auditing a tax return is deplorable. He’s basically saying the average American worker the government hired to fill these positions is too stupid to read a tax return. Hold that under your hat because you’re going to notice a pattern in his responses.  The deeper issue here is that he’s lying about the results. We can disagree on the efficacy of the Biden administration's broader economic vision. I have an endless number of critiques regarding Biden’s “Bottom-Up/Middle-Out” strategy, as many of the measures adopted in both the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act had latent economic benefits; the issue was that they were devoid of immediate economic relief programs that would have bridged the gap between the current pain in the broader economy and the eventual economic lift the bills would have had. Perhaps the biggest risk to these bills at the time was the prospect of Biden being defeated by Trump. On balance, these were good bills, but the provisions eliminated by the likes of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in a capitulation to the GOP had the potential to make an immediate positive impact. So here we are.
But one of the things the IRA specifically accomplished was to bring high-income tax evaders and avoiders to the table to pay their fair share. (Okay, maybe not fair, but at least what they owed.) In 2024, the IRS went after 125,000 high-income individuals who hadn’t filed returns since 2017, and they had already compelled 21,000 of them to cough up taxes. It also went after approximately 1,600 millionaires with delinquent tax debt, and to date, 80% of them have made payments, leading to more than a billion dollars recovered. In the grand scheme of things, this is a drop in the bucket, but it forced compliance among the wealthy to stop evading taxes. But note that Bessent said he believes the data aren’t true. The data, by the way, came from the Treasury—not the CBO—so he’s basically saying the information that came from the department he’s in charge of is bullshit. You can’t make this up. Gutting Medicaid Now, another part of the Big Beautiful Bill Act that is an absolute disaster is the cuts to healthcare. To be clear, I’m a vocal proponent of Medicare for All and have written at length about it, but to the extent that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the law of the land, it’s imperative that we protect the millions of Americans who rely on the extension of Medicaid protections that are in the bill. In fact, an amendment was proposed to preserve Medicaid, but it was universally shot down by House Republicans. When the question was posed to Bessent as to whether he would have supported the bill to preserve health coverage for millions of Americans, he responded simply by saying, “No.” Bessent isn’t in Congress so it’s a hypothetical and doesn’t matter, of course. But what it reveals is a shared sentiment among Republicans that access to healthcare for the nation’s poor and working class means nothing to them. That’s because the Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed the House is a functional repeal of the ACA. It is a procedural gutting of Medicaid because it eliminates automatic re-enrollment, requires detailed documentation to maintain tax credits and coverage, and allows enhanced tax credits to expire. It also creates shorter enrollment periods and increased paperwork to even participate, along with work requirements that completely overlook stay-at-home caretakers as an example. Ultimately, it cuts around $880 billion in state funding as well, which will have an outsized impact on states that are ultimately responsible for the administration of Medicaid. It’s an absolute bloodbath for the poorest people in this country—and they couldn’t care less. The Debt CeilingNow this last exchange is perhaps the most revealing on so many levels. By this point, Bessent had already been in a testy exchange with a female member of Congress who insisted he stop trampling over her to mainsplain her own questions. So when Representative Terri Sewell of Alabama had her turn, she noted that her questions came from her constituents and asked him about lifting the debt ceiling. We’ll talk about the substance in a moment, but once again Bessent couldn’t help but reveal his utter disdain for the American people when starting his response:
Rep. Sewell interrupted his answer, saying, “With all due respect, just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you're ignorant.” He could have left well enough alone at this point, but he had to double down by saying, “I’m in the habit of saying ‘thank you’ to compliments.” As for the substance of the matter, suddenly the GOP is all about lifting the debt ceiling even though they weaponize it against Democratic administrations time and time again. The reason they’re trying to memorialize an elevated debt ceiling as part of this bill is because the GOP spending plan and tax cuts combine to deliver a whopping $2.4 trillion to the federal debt over and above what it was projected to be under Biden. To a large extent, I belong to the “we can afford it” camp so long as we’re reducing inequality, spending on social safety nets, offering federal job guarantees, and providing health coverage to every American. What we can’t afford is to continue the practice of welfare for the wealthiest among us who turn around and buy our elections while we eradicate programs that literally feed, clothe, house, and care for people. Low Bar for High HopesWhat’s fascinating about a guy like Bessent is that, believe it or not, I had high hopes that he would be the adult in Trump’s romper room cabinet. The Treasury Secretary is an important position, and no matter your feelings about prior secretaries like Tim Geithner, Hank Paulson, Jack Lew, Janet Yellen, or even Steve Mnuchin, these were professionals with financial pedigrees who at least pretended to care about the working class. But Bessent isn’t the adult I had hoped for, and he has revealed himself to be an elitist snob who wears his disdain for Congress, the media, and clearly the American people on his face and on his sleeve. Not for nothing, the first Treasury Secretary we had in this country was Alexander Hamilton. The immigrant. In the end, he’s just another hedge fund jackal purportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars who likes to remind us all that he took a pay cut for this job. And his sole mission appears to be to take care of his people even if he has to do so by picking the last dime out of your pocket. I know these hearings go nowhere and the cast is set for the Big Beautiful Bill Act to tear apart the country, but I’m glad that he had to listen to how some of us feel about him.  To recap for good measure, in just this one hearing he called the staff of the Treasury, CBO, and Congress liars; said that Americans are too stupid to work at the IRS; he’s fine gutting Medicaid knowing that millions of Americans are going to lose health coverage; lifting the debt ceiling to make way for Trump’s tax cuts is the only acceptable circumstance; and that even when he’s delivering a backhanded compliment, women should say thank you. Max is a contributor to the MeidasTouch Network and President of UNFTR Media. For deeper dives into economic and socioeconomic stories, visit UNFTR.com or @UNFTR on YouTube. Sourceshttps://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2562 https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-big-beautiful-bill-obamacare-repeal-aca-gop-medicaid/ |
