WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent told Breitbart News that President Donald Trump's administration is “laser-centric” about cutting deficits and being “under control.” Bescent said he joined Trump on the campaign trail last year and later joined his cabinet as he was “very worried” by the “high levels of government spending” that had become established in recent years.
Bescent gave a major speech to the New York Economic Club last week, where he called for a “revatization” of the US economy, claiming that under former President Joe Biden's administration, the economy is too dependent on government spending for economic growth, and that the US needs the private sector to promote such growth.
“One of the reasons I came out from behind my desk and asked President Trump if he could join the campaign — and when he asked him to stay in the cabinet, I was very wary of this high level of government spending,” Bescent told Breitbart News when asked about the vision. “I've never seen anything like this. When we weren't in war and recession, it's the highest level ever. So the Biden administration was dependent on this blown-up spending. Back in mainstream media, no one criticized it when they were doing it. It was for the greater profit, it was for the green program, it was for this, it was for overseas involvement. Now, what we're trying to do is to overthrow the government, fire the government, make course revisions that revalue the private sector. We'll do that by reducing spending. We'll get a natural drop in interest rates and on the other side as it relates to the private sector, we'll deregulate the banking system, one of the other banking systems we spoke to at the economic club in New York last week. So, if we unsettle the regulated banking system, they can lend to the private sector, especially the overlooked Main Street.
Bescent also opposed critics of him and Trump's ideas on this front. Critics argue that cutting government spending would cause a recession, but Bescent said he opposes and applies “fact-based analysis” based on his decades as an investor, based on conversations with major bankers around the country.
“I don't agree. This doesn't have to cause a recession,” Bescent said. “Again, 35 years after my investment career, I went back to your point on fact-based analysis, not listening to the noise, I was able to stick to the facts. I can tell you the fact that I met some large bank executives and payment processors last week, but American consumers are in great condition. They are spending. I met one of the five biggest bank CEOs today. He said that he was a medium manufacturer in the Midwest, and that he is checking up on the volume of loans. I said I saw it. So I disagree with this. Where were all these people when the Biden administration was blowing the deficit? We could have come in. It would have been easy to maintain these horrible spending levels. Perhaps one, two, maybe four years, we could have made it possible for the next president and his administration and the American people to deal with this issue. So, we're focusing on lasers on controlling this deficit. And we'll grow the economy.”
Additionally, Bessent's exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the Treasury is approaching.
