(Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent continued to dismiss angst over the efforts by DOGE to shrink the federal workforce and curb public spending, saying its name doesn’t stand for the “Department of Government Elimination.”
It’s important to get back to a place where Americans believe that government agencies are “worthwhile, do a good job and are benefitting them,” Bessent said at an event at the Australian embassy in Washington Tuesday. At the same time, he said that “government jobs do not generate real long-term wage growth,” and the Trump administration is focusing on reducing the public sector’s role in the economy.
“Our goal is to re-privatize the economy,” he said, laying out plans for financial deregulation that he argued would unshackle banks. “The private sector has been in recession.”
Bessent described President Donald Trump’s economic agenda as composed of deregulation, fiscal prudence, fair trade and energy dominance. As Trump’s policies are implemented, 10-year Treasury yields “should naturally come down” over time, he said. He also said that he and Trump were focused on “increasing the desirability” of US Treasuries.
The Treasury chief said he’s committed to securing the health and resilience of the government debt market, and reiterated that the current issuance plan for Treasuries leaves the department well positioned for “the next several quarters.” He reiterated that he wants to get the budget deficit down from above 6% of GDP now to a figure with “a 3 in front” by 2028.
“Returning to a sustainable fiscal path” is critical to guard against either domestic or international emergencies, Bessent said. He also repeated his call to make Trump’s 2017 tax-cut package permanent.
Among the Trump administration’s trade priorities is securing critical minerals, and the US wants to partner with allies on processing those, Bessent said. Some 85% of processing still happens in China, he said.
China’s plans more broadly to move toward higher value-added manufactured goods could be problematic for South Korea and Germany, the US Treasury secretary said. He repeated his characterization of China’s economy as unbalanced. “China really needs more consumption and less exports,” he said.
(Updates with further comments throughout.)
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