Treasury Secretary: ‘Access to Cheap Goods Isn’t the Essence of the American Dream’
If Republicans’ crusade to fire tens of thousands of federal employees, raise prices through an ill-advised trade war, gut Medicaid and other social services, and generally make things more difficult for working class Americans wasn’t enough, they would also like you to stop being such a baby about it.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended President Donald Trump’s decision to implement steep tariffs against Canada and Mexico, which economists and retailers warn could severely spike prices for consumer goods.
“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” Bessent told the Economic Club of New York. “The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security. For too long, the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this.”
True prosperity apparently means paying a higher grocery bill to support the president’s ego trips against our own regional allies.
Bessent has an estimated net worth of more than $700 million, in case you were wondering.
Bessent is not the only prominent Republican telling Americans frustrated with the president’s early term antics to suck it up. On Thursday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told the audience at the “Rescuing the American Dream” summit that people who say “you can’t cut, you can’t cut” entitlements aren’t actually “worried” about the programs they claim to care about, because “Medicare is going bankrupt, Social Security is going bankrupt, inflation can’t go away and interest rates can’t go down.” Scott added that “we’re going to have to do this,” referring to cuts to social welfare programs, in order to combat inflation.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told CNN that his constituents would be quite willing to pay higher prices for goods. “I think our constituents are going to do what it takes to get America back on track. We’re tired of countries taking advantage of us,” Mullin said.
“Now, does it hurt our homes? Does it hurt our finances? Does it hurt our communities? Yes. But we understand that we need to get America back on track, and we’ve got to stop the criminal activity,” he said of Trump’s tariffs.
All the while, Republicans are negotiating a proposed budget that will extend Trump’s massive 2017 tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations. Who cares if working class Americans suffer? Definitely not Trump, his Cabinet, or their allies in Congress.
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