During Wednesday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) questioned Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent about the One Big Beautiful Bill.
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00:00Now proceed to the question and answer session. One of the one of the more absurd attacks we hear
00:07from our Democrat colleagues is that that the one big beautiful bill is focused on the wealthy
00:14not the working class. I'm sure the waitress who will keep more of her hard-earned money
00:20under the no tax on tips policy or the linemen burning the midnight oil to restore power
00:27and seen a tax cut under the no tax on overtime policy would be surprised to learn that Democrats
00:35consider them wealthy. Secretary Besant, whether it is those policies or the tax relief in the bill
00:43for seniors, the double child tax credit and standard deduction, or the fact that the tax burden on the
00:50truly wealthy will actually rise under this bill. How does the one big beautiful bill
00:58deliver primarily for working families?
01:02Thank you for that question, Chairman Smith. As we saw in President Trump's first term,
01:12substantial non-inflationary growth was created. Non-inflationary growth. Real wages rose and working
01:22Americans did better. Hourly workers did better than supervisory workers. We believe that this will happen again.
01:33As you outlined, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax breaks for seniors on Social Security, and the ability to
01:47deduct auto loans on new cars made in America, as was available when I bought my first car in 1978, will be restored.
01:57All of this will help working Americans overcome this horrendous affordability crisis that this administration inherited.
02:09The Biden administration negotiated a global tax scheme through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that would rob American taxpayers of $120 billion and would discriminate against American
02:26businesses. President Trump issued a day one executive order opposing the Biden administration's global tax surrender. In the one big, beautiful bill, Congress provides the president in line with that directive,
02:45directive, specific targeted authorities to fight back in the event nations impose a discriminatory tax on American businesses such as
02:56as a UTPR. Last week, members of this committee met with an ambassador who was specifically concerned about how this provision would give the U.S. the ability to stand up for American businesses and respond to an unfair tax his country has imposed on American job creators.
03:19Secretary Besant, why is it important for the Treasury Department and the President to have strong protective measures like the one provided in the one big, beautiful bill to fight against foreign taxes that discriminate against American companies? And how will the administration ensure that the use is targeted and in a manner to protect or replace U.S. tax revenue?
03:46Mr. Chairman, for whatever reason, the previous administration chose to outsource American sovereignty on tax matters and the Trump administration believes that is unacceptable, unacceptable.
04:03Many other countries would seek to pull in revenues from U.S. multinational corporations into their treasuries.
04:13And rest assured that the provisions in the one big, beautiful bill to combat this are a staking out of our fiscal sovereignty. The U.S. tax system will stand next to what is called Pillar 2, and other countries are welcome to relinquish their fiscal and tax sovereignty to other nations.
04:41The United States will not. So this bill will allow us to prevent our corporate revenues from being drained into foreign treasuries. And that is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
04:59Thank you, Secretary.
05:01President Trump is also using tariffs to level the plane field and demand fair treatment for American workers, farmers and manufacturers. Secretary, you are on the front lines of the president's economic policy agenda, including through your lead role in trade negotiations to demand fair treatment from China over the last couple days.
05:25How do the president's trade policies and tariffs and the total reset of our unfair trade and investment relationship with China that President Trump has led fit into the broader effort to reorient America's economy toward one that serves the working class instead of just the wealthy elites?
05:49Mr. Chairman, China currently has the most imbalanced economy in the history of the world.
05:57They now have an approximate 30 percent share of global manufacturing and they continually grow their manufacturing base.
06:07They are in the midst of a real estate downturn, some may cause a crisis, and they are trying to export their way out of it rather than take domestic measures such as increasing consumption, dealing with banking problems, or dealing with the real estate crisis.
06:29They cannot be allowed to export their way back to prosperity, which would mean substantial decreases in the standards of living, not only for the United States working Americans, but for working citizens across the world.
06:49Our negotiations with all countries seek to bring fairness and I will echo President Trump's remarks.
06:59As there are 18 important trading partners that we are in fulsome negotiations with, many of them are coming to us with unimaginably good trade deals to bring down tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers, which the academic research has shown to be, can be even more pernicious than the tariffs.
07:25As there are 18 countries, currency manipulation, currency manipulation, and the subsidy of labor and industry.
07:32But as these countries come to us and I look at the list and I think, how could this have happened?
07:39How could this have happened that the United States willingly became party to such unfair and unbalanced trade?
07:51And as President Trump has said, I don't blame the other countries.
07:55If you could get away with it, you should.
07:58It was those sitting behind the resolute desk or those making trade policy who have allowed this to happen over 40 years.
08:07And we are determined to rebalance that for the American people.