Bessent Says He Doesn’t ‘Put Much Credence’ in Moody’s Downgrade

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on May 18 that he is not worried about Moody’s recent downgrade of the United States’ Aaa credit rating to Aa1, and defended President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his sweeping tax-cut bill. Speaking with CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper” on Sunday, Bessent said Trump’s bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts under the president’s first term, would surge a level of economic growth. Bessent said that growing the economy faster is more important than “the potential growth of the debt.” “So we’ve been trying to bring down the spending, and we are going to grow the revenue side. So we are going to grow the GDP [gross domestic product] faster than the debt grows, and that will stabilize the debt-to-GDP” ratio, he said....