Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent opened his confirmation hearing in the Senate Finance Committee with a powerful attack on the radical left by defending the value of tariffs and nuclear energy.
While many in the Democratic Party and Washington's elites support radical free trade and so-called “green energy,” Bessent rejects their elitist views and supports President-elect Donald Trump's economic policies. He made a persuasive argument in support.
When asked about the tariffs by Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bessent accused Wyden of making inaccurate claims about the impact of tariffs on American workers.
Senator, I respectfully disagree. And the history of tariffs and tariff theory and optimal tariff theory do not support what you are saying. Traditionally, using the number now being circulated in the press as 10 percent, we see that traditionally the currency appreciates by 4 percent. Therefore, 10 percent will not pass. Then there are different elasticities. Consumer preferences can change. And finally, foreign manufacturers, especially China, are trying to export to get out of the current economic downturn. They will continue to lower prices to maintain market share.
“That's an academic opinion,” Wyden countered.
Wyden then asked Bessent about expensive green energy and President Trump's pledge to rebalance the U.S. energy portfolio.
“There's a huge effort in the Trump administration to reverse that. I think it's bad for the economy, but it's going to be very good for China, because we're going to have a Because we're in an energy arms race. Are you going to side with the people who want to figure this out?'' Wyden asked.
Mr. Bessent responded to Mr. Wyden's political question about the “clean energy arms race” by reframing it with more specifics about China's goal of building nuclear power plants.
“Senator Wyden, just to get the message across to everyone in this room: China will build 100 new coal-fired power plants this year. There is no clean energy race. There is an energy race. China will build 100 new coal-fired power plants this year. “We're going to build a nuclear power plant. It's not going to be solar power,” he said.
“I'm in favor of building more nuclear power plants. And I also want to note, as the CBO pointed out, that the IRA is very out of control in terms of upward spending,” Bessent added. .
President Trump nominated Bessent to be Treasury Secretary with support from Steve Bannon.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter for Breitbart News and a former RNC war room analyst. He is the author of The Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell “×” @WendellHusebø or society of truth @WendellHusebo.
