Reducing the tax burden on U.S. manufacturing, service workers and retirees will be a critical priority for the incoming Trump administration, Trump Treasury nominee Scott Bessent said Thursday, according to prepared remarks. He is scheduled to speak before a Senate committee.
“If Congress does not act, Americans will face the largest tax increase in history, an overwhelming $4 trillion. We must implement new pro-growth policies to reduce the tax burden on the service industry and the elderly,” Bessent will tell the Senate Finance Committee.
Mr. Bessent has largely worked behind the scenes since President Trump nominated the South Carolina-based billionaire investor to be Treasury secretary. He has been meeting with Republican and Democratic senators in recent weeks and is expected to be confirmed to the Cabinet.
Lawmakers are expected to ask Bessent questions about tariffs, the proposal to create a Bitcoin reserve, the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, tax cuts, Russian sanctions, and U.S. monetary policy. Bessette will say keeping the dollar as the world's reserve currency is important to the health of the U.S. economy, according to prepared remarks reviewed by Breitbart News.
“We must ensure our supply chains are vulnerable to strategic competitors and we must carefully deploy sanctions as part of a whole-of-government approach to addressing national security requirements. And importantly, we have to ensure that the US dollar remains the world's reserve currency,” Bessent said.
Mr. Bessent may also seek to distinguish between the Trump administration's plans to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and the Biden administration's troubled industrial policies. Even as the Biden administration funnels billions of dollars in subsidies to companies willing to advance the climate change and DEI agenda, U.S. manufacturing has been in a recession for nearly two years. Billions of dollars have been spent on new manufacturing plants even as production and employment have slumped and consumer prices have risen.
“Productive investments that grow the economy must be prioritized over wasteful spending that causes inflation,” Bessent said.
Bessent also plans to defend the president-elect's plan to impose tariffs and negotiate better terms of trade for American companies. President Trump has indicated that he intends to impose tariffs across the board, but if trading partners are willing to reduce their own trade barriers and buy more U.S. products, He hinted that tariffs could be reduced. President Trump also said foreign companies could avoid tariffs by moving production within the United States.
“Trump is the first president in modern times to recognize the need to change trade policy and stand up for American workers,” Bessette said.
