🚨 JUST IN: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gives his defense tonight of the Congressional spending bill – “I’m a fiscal hawk, but I’m also a realist.”
“The way to think about this is every $300 billion is 1% of GDP…we have to bring this down gradually because we want to do two things. We want to cut and constrain spending, and we want to grow the economy.”
“What Senator Paul is asking for could cause a sudden stop in the economy. So I’m a deficit hawk, but I’m also a realist.”
“What’s important here is our debt-to-GDP. If we don’t grow, then we won’t grow the tax base and we’re not going to grow revenues. We’re not going to grow the economy.”
“We inherited a mess and we have to constrain spending, cut spending, and then grow our way out of this.”