A friendly exchange between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire pick to run the Treasury Department, produced friction between their viewpoints, if not between the men themselves.
In the exchange below, Warnock contends that the Treasury saved $600 billion when the Bush tax cuts were extended in 2013, but not extended for those making $400K a year or more.
This was a bipartisan move that Warnock calls a step toward what the government must do: “be fiscally responsible and work to bring the national debt under control.”
Trying to find an income level where Bessent might agree that raising taxes was fair, Warnock goes in increments from $400K all the way to a billion dollars a year, each time meeting resistance from the Treasury nominee. (The billion-a-year earners are “job creators” Bessent asserts, implying that the billionaires would create fewer jobs if they paid more taxes.)
With his answers, Bessent managed to avoid one common accusation leveled at Trump’s nominees by Democrats — he cannot be accused of lacking transparency. Bessent flatly said there is no income level where a tax raise to help offset the debt is part of the plan.
Warnock: Do you agree that ending the tax cuts for those making more than $400k would help close the deficit?
Bessent: I do not. You would capture an inordinate amount of small business people…
Warnock: What about $1 million?
Bessent: I believe these are small business… pic.twitter.com/Og1Zbb3QTA
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 16, 2025
Bessent here seems to fundamentally disagree with billionaire investor Warren Buffet, whose “tax rule” has as its basic principle that “no household making over $1 million annually should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.” (Buffett has famously said he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.)
Commenters on the testimony were split, favoring cutting spending over raising taxes in general, though tax-the-billionaires is a more popular stance than tax small business owners — to judge anecdotally.
One commenter asserted that as long as the nation runs a deficit, all tax breaks are irresponsible gifts to those who receive them.
Keep in mind that passing tax cuts for the rich, while running a deficit, means that we are borrowing money to give to rich people. Let that sink in. THAT is what the GOP stands for.
— Matt Mullen
(@PhyloSeFizer) January 16, 2025
[NOTE: The parties play the blame game and debate specifics on the debt, but realists recognize that the debt increased mightily under both President Trump and President Biden, with the CRFB reporting in June that “debt held by the public rose by $7.2 trillion during President Trump’s term including $5.9 trillion in the first three years and five months. Debt held by the public has grown by $6.0 trillion during President Biden’s term so far.”]