Treasury nominee Scott Bessent opened his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee with powerful attacks on the radical left by defending the value of tariffs and nuclear energy.
Democrats and many members of the Washington elites support of radical free trade and so-called “green energy,” but Bessent spurned their elitist views and made compelling arguments in support of President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda.
When questioned by Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) about tariffs, Bessent slammed Wyden for alleging inaccuracies about the impact of tariffs on the American worker:
Senator, I would respectfully disagree. And the history of tariffs and tariff theory, optimal tariff theory, does not support what you’re saying. Traditionally, we see that the current — if we were to say, use a number that has been thrown around in the press of 10 percent — then traditionally, the currency appreciates by four percent. So the ten percent is not passed through. Then we have various elasticities. Consumer preferences may change. And finally, foreign manufacturers, especially China, which is trying to export their way out of their current economic malaise. They will continue cutting prices to maintain market share.
“That’s an academic view,” Wyden shot back.
Wyden then asked Bessent about costly green energy and Trump’s pledge to rebalance America’s energy portfolio.
“There is a big effort in the Trump administration to reverse it. I think that’s going to be bad for the economy, but it is going to be damn good for China, because we are in an arms race on clean energy with them. Are you going to be on the side of people who want to unravel this?” Wyden asked.
Bessent responded by reframing Wyden’s political question on “an arms race on clean energy” with specifics about China’s goal of building nuclear plants.
“Senator Wyden, just so we can frame this for everyone in the room, China will build 100 new coal plants this year. There is not a clean energy race. There is an energy race. China will build ten nuclear plants this year. That is not solar,” he said.
“I am in favor of more nuclear plants. And I would note that the IRA, as scored by the CBO, is wildly out of control in terms of spending on the upside,” Bessent added.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.