Treasury Chief Dismisses Moody’s Downgrade As GOP Pushes Trump Tax Bill | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday dismissed Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit standing, because the Republican-controlled Congress tried to push forward on President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut invoice.

Bessent, in a pair of tv interviews, stated the invoice’s provisions extending the 2017 tax cuts handed underneath Trump’s first time period would spur financial development that will outpace what the nation owed, at the same time as nonpartisan analysts warn the measure it might add trillions to the federal authorities’s $36.2 trillion in debt.

“I don’t put much credence in the Moody’s” downgrade, Bessent instructed CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

The House of Representatives Budget Committee on Friday rejected the invoice, with a handful of Republican hardliners saying they had been involved it didn’t sufficiently lower spending.

House Speaker Mike Johnson individually stated on Sunday the chamber remains to be “on track” to cross the invoice. The committee is ready to attempt once more in a uncommon Sunday evening listening to, set to start at 10 p.m. ET (0200 GMT Monday).

“We’ve had lots of conversations. We’ll have more today,” Johnson stated on “Fox News with Shannon Bream” when requested about hard-line Republicans Chip Roy and Ralph Norman demanding extra spending cuts.

Congressional Republicans in 2017 additionally argued that the tax cuts would pay for themselves by stimulating financial development. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the modifications elevated the federal deficit by slightly below $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when together with constructive financial results.