On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that he thinks getting deficits to 3% of GDP is “a two, three, four-year” project and “by 2028, I would like to see the deficit as a percentage of GDP back to something with a 3 in front of it, 3.5%, 3%.”
Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:15] “You have a proposed fiscal goal of deficits at 3% of GDP. When would you like to hit that target, considering you’re doing some big things? You’re trying to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent. You’re doing a lot of big things that require a lot of money.”
Bessent answered, “Well, look, we didn’t get here overnight. So, I think it is a two, three, four-year, by 2028, I would like to see the deficit as a percentage of GDP back to something with a 3 in front of it, 3.5%, 3%. Would it be great to go lower? Sure. But 3.5% is the long-term average. Bret, we don’t have a revenue problem in this country. We have a spending problem. So, we’re going to get the spending under control. We’re going to pass the — we’re going to make President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, and then, we will both grow the revenue side and we’re going to cut expenses.”
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