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  • 7 months ago
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) questioned Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent about cuts to Medicare, and Trump's tariff policy
Transcript
00:00Senator Wyden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Mr. Secretary, around here we use the
00:05Joint Committee on Taxation to analyze key legislation and they took a look at
00:11the House bill, the bill that you and the administration are in favor of, and the
00:17Joint Committee on Taxation found that under the House bill, high earners who
00:23bring in several million dollars a year will get tax breaks of a quarter million
00:29dollars. This comes from the people that we asked to do the analysis. So, if we
00:37got to make choices, who are you with? Are you with those high earners that the
00:42Joint Committee on Taxation found, or do you think it's more important that two
00:47million hungry kids in America have enough to eat? Senator, I think you're
00:50playing a game of semantics here. You're using absolute... Why don't you just answer the question?
00:55Why don't you ask an honest question? Because we are talking absolutes and the
01:01answer is percentages. With TCJA, the top 10% share of taxes went from 37% to 45%.
01:12I asked a very simple question based on the independent scorekeepers about who you
01:20value, and you're not responding, and that's your constitutional right. Let me
01:23move on to tariffs. So, at your nomination hearing, I asked you whether Americans
01:29would pay the blanket tariffs that President Trump wanted to impose, and you
01:34said no. Now, since then, a number of analysts have said these tariffs are gonna hit
01:41American families like a wrecking ball, something like $2,500 a year. Major
01:47companies like Walmart, Mattel, and Ford have all suggested they're gonna need to
01:53raise consumer prices as the tariffs hit them. Some companies have already had to
01:59raise prices, like Stanley Black and Decker. So, here's what you said. Nobody's
02:05making this stuff up. Here's what you said. Walmart will be absorbing some of the
02:10tariffs. Some may get passed on to consumers. Your words. So, another chance
02:17on the issue. Do American consumers pay the tariffs? Again, Senator, you are cherry
02:24picking because Walmart makes decisions based on their customers. Two other very
02:30large retailers, and this is not an advertisement for them, Amazon and Home
02:34Depot have chosen not to pass on tariffs, and there seems to be a new version of
02:41TDS, which I would call tariff derangement syndrome, and many on your side seem
02:47disappointed that there is no inflation today. As a matter of fact, we saw the
02:52best inflation numbers since 2020, so there has been nothing passed on. There has
02:58been no tariff recession. So, no inflation, no recession due to tariffs. So, let's
03:04the record show that, once again, the Secretary of Treasury doesn't think
03:10American consumers are paying the tariffs. We say to all those people who are
03:15trying to pay medical bills and food bills and the like that are still going
03:19up, they know they're paying tariffs. Let me move on to an issue. I'm sorry,
03:24Senator, but the data doesn't show that. Okay. We can have a
03:31difference of opinion. Difference of data. The Senate is coping with health care
03:37choices that are enormously important. Just as a matter of your thinking, what do
03:43you think is the largest employer in rural America? Sorry? What do you think is
03:48the largest employer in rural America? The largest single employer? No, the sector. The
03:53largest industry? The sector, yes. I would assume it would be agriculture. It is rural
03:58health care. And it is why all of us up here disagree so strongly with what this
04:05administration, you know, is doing. And the tax bill is going to accelerate the
04:10closure of rural hospitals. People who basically are the key to surviving in
04:15rural, you know, life. And our colleagues, Senator Markey, Senator Merkley, Senator
04:21Schumer, are going to release new data that hundreds of rural hospitals across the
04:25country stand to lose under the Republican reconciliation bill, which apparently you
04:29guys don't know is going to clobber the big economic engine in rural America. So
04:36I'd like to hear your thoughts about whether you're willing to make changes to
04:40protect a crucial area of the American economy. In fact, I think it is fair to
04:45say almost all of us up here, the chairman and I, for example, represent, we have the
04:50honor to represent a big chunk of the rural West. And I want to know if you're
04:55willing to make changes so that we can protect the economic of survival of these
05:00rural communities, which means their hospitals. We are quite satisfied with the
05:06health care portion of this and the adjustments to Medicaid. I would just say
05:13to colleagues, my time is up. When you're home, over the break and the like, ask your
05:18rural hospitals if they're satisfied with what they're going to get and the house
05:22changes because I think they'll tell you they feel like they're going to get hit
05:26by a wrecking ball. And that will happen in Kansas and Oregon and all across the land.
05:30Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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