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.
Some Republican lawmakers are concerned the bill does not do enough to address the growing debt. The United States currently owes $36.2 trillion.
"Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs," it said in its May 16 statement.
The move stripped the nation of its last perfect credit rating among the three major agencies.
Bessent said on Sunday that he does not "put much credence" in the Moody's downgrade.
Bessent said the president has "put them on notice that if you do not negotiate in good faith, you will ratchet back up to your April 2 level."
The United States is particularly focused on codifying deals with 18 trading partners, Bessent said.
"There are a lot of smaller trading relationships that we can just come up with a number. My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals -- 'this is the rate for Central America, this is the rate for this part of Africa,'" he said.
"Given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren't able to absorb all the pressure, given the reality of narrow retail margins," he said.