Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he would be appointing an “affordability czar” to tackle hight prices effecting consumers.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: I hear you that sometimes the data lags reality, but when we are talking about people’s perceptions of the economy, it’s just how they’re feeling right now, we see in our polling, 52% of Americans say Trump’s policies are making grocery prices go up. They explicitly said that on this bar chart you see there. So it’s an experience and a perception issue. When does that shift? When we see the benefits of the planning you say is underway?
BESSENT: Look, I think President Trump said that he’ll own the economy in six or 12 months, but I can tell you that we are working to get these prices down every day, but it took four years to get us here, and we’ve had five weeks so interest rates are down. That’s a very good start toward housing affordability, toward auto affordability, and we are tackling this. At Treasury we are going to appoint an affordability czar. We are going to have an affordability Council. We are laser focused on this–
BRENNAN: What does that mean? What’s an affordability czar?
BESSENT: Someone who picks the five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working class Americans.
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