During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on June 3, 2026, Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) guided Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent through a straightforward exercise: have him rate the economy in the same way ordinary Americans already do. Yet the gulf between Bessent’s assessment and everyday experience was strikingly wide.
Warnock began by recalling that President Donald Trump’s own Federal Reserve pick had dodged the same question the previous month.
“President Trump has said that his grade of the economy — his words — is a quote, plus plus plus plus plus,” Warnock said. “He said this before he sent energy and gas prices soaring with this illegal war in Iran, a war that’s costing taxpayers billions of dollars …a billion or more per day …turbocharging inflation.”
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When Warnock posed the identical question to Bessent, the Treasury secretary answered with grandiose language.
“I believe we’re looking at the foundations for one of the strongest economies in history,” Bessent replied.
Warnock remained unconvinced.
“Americans are giving the Trump-era economy a failing grade. You and I may disagree, but this isn’t about us. People are voting with their wallets—they can’t afford ordinary things.”
He then shifted to the longer horizon, noting that under Trump’s economic policies the national debt had surpassed GDP for the first time since World War II, and that the so‑called Big Ugly bill would add nearly $5 trillion more to that tally.
“Sir, I have a basic question for you. Do you think borrowing to extend billionaire tax cuts was a good investment? Yes or no?” Warnock asked.
Bessent pushed back on the framing, dismissing the findings as the work of “Biden hacks.”
“I disagree with the labeling of billionaire tax cuts when in fact most of the tax relief went to working Americans,” he said before taking another swipe at the source. “The Yale Budget Lab is a bunch of Biden hacks.”
Warnock didn’t miss a beat.
“You should talk to the people in Georgia. Whatever tax relief you think you gave them was more than eroded by these tariffs. According to the Yale Budget Lab, the administration’s tariffs cost families three times as much as they got back in tax cuts.”
When Warnock pressed Bessent on whether the Iran war that’s costing tens of billions and counting was still worth it, Bessent deflected to Obama-era Iran policy. Warnock shut it down immediately.
“President Obama left office in 2016.”
He closed by bringing it back to where it started — the people of Georgia, the closed Strait of Hormuz, and a war with no end in sight.
“You should tell the people in Georgia that this war is a good idea,” Warnock said. “I think they’ll disagree.”
Bessent had no answer for that. He rarely does. Watch full clip here.
