Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Calls Himself A 'Deficit Hawk,' Says He Is 'Completely Aligned' With Elon Musk On DOGE

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed the importance of lowering debt and deficit while outlining President Donald Trump‘s economic plan during the latest All-In Podcast episode on Wednesday.

What Happened: Despite describing himself as a “deficit hawk,” during the chat with Chamath Palihapitiya and David Friedberg, Bessent said that he needs to sometimes coax Republicans to not cut spending “all at once”

“I’m not sure what a deficit hawk is but I think I would qualify as one,” he said. Adding that amid the push from Republicans, “I actually have to coax them, you can’t do this all at once.”

A “deficit hawk” would refer to someone who strongly prioritizes controlling government spending and reducing budget deficits. Bessent also added, in the “U.S. we don’t have a revenue problem we have a spending problem.”

He highlighted this with an example saying “I was with one of the congressional budget committees two weeks ago and you know they really want to cut this fast and I said you do realize every $300 billion we cut is about a percent of GDP, so we are trying to land the plane right well.”

Furthermore, he highlighted the steps in the administration’s detailed economic plans.

First, is to deleverage the government via the spending and shed excess labor from the government.

Second, is to deregulate the financial system, which Bessest describes as a “regulatory corset”.

Third, is to re-leverage the private sector and restore the employment level by rehiring the people who lost government jobs in the private sector.

Why It Matters: While the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE-led by Musk has been designated with the duty to assist the government in cutting wasteful spending, Bessent said that he was aligned with the idea.

“With Doge, I am completely aligned with what Elon’s doing,” he said. However, he underlined that doing this even faster with just eight weeks in the office was difficult.

But he acknowledged, “If you don’t move fast the vested interest will weigh you down.”

Price Action: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, rose during premarket on Wednesday. The SPY advanced 0.31% to $562.75, and the QQQ also climbed 0.48% to $476.80, according to Benzinga Pro data.

On Tuesday, SPY dropped 1.08%, whereas QQQ declined 1.70%.

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