Watch: Elizabeth Warren Seethes as Scott Bessent Turns the Tables and Reminds Her She Was 'Front and Center' in Affordability Crisis
The adult mayfly, an aquatic insect, often lives for less than 24 hours. That qualifies as the shortest lifespan in the animal kingdom.
Indeed, the mayfly’s existence would seem the height of pointlessness if not for the phenomenon of the congressional hearing.
On Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent endured his second consecutive day of mindless questioning from legislators, in this case led by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who tried — in her usual charming way — to pin responsibility for inflation on President Donald Trump’s administration, only to have Bessent interrupt and remind her that she stood “front and center” during the runaway inflation that occurred under former President Joe Biden.
In other words, if Bessent had to waste time talking to grandstanding Democrats, at least he made it entertaining again.
On Wednesday, the Treasury Secretary took a similar approach with Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California. By the end of that exchange, Bessent had the flustered Waters begging the committee chair to “shut him up.”
Imagine having to suffer through Waters in the House one day and Warren in the Senate the next. Bessent deserves a vacation after this week.
In any event, the Massachusetts senator opened the questioning by fixating on Democrats’ perennial, tiresome bugbear: Trump.
Specifically, she referred to comments in which the president, she said, characterized the affordability crisis as a “hoax,” a “scam,” and a “con job,” and she asked if the economic numbers supported that characterization.
Here, of course, we have a classic Democrat tactic: misrepresenting Trump’s words and then holding others accountable for them.
Bessent refused to bite.
“Senator,” he replied, “it may be a bit nuanced for you, but what President Trump is referring to is the media saying that the affordability crisis was generated by this administration, when it was you and President Biden who destroyed the buying power of the American people.”
“So there is an affordability crisis,” Bessent added, “and you were front and center in it.”
Warren grew agitated.
“So let me make sure that I understand,” she said. “Donald Trump is not saying that affordability — what’s happening to families right now — is a hoax?”
Having already answered that question, Bessent decided to needle the senator once more.
“He is saying,” the Treasury Secretary replied, “that trying to lay the blame at this administration, rather than the Biden-Warren economy, is a hoax.”
Readers may view the exchange in the YouTube video below.
To veteran observers of these asinine hearings, it goes without saying that Warren had no interest in Bessent’s substantive remarks.
After asking the Treasury Secretary about the affordability “hoax,” the senator then subjected him to a two-minute harangue on grocery prices. At no point did she ask Bessent for anything besides “yes” or “no” answers.
If legislators insist on wasting everyone’s time with their partisan inanities, then who can blame Bessent for punching back?
The time has come to get rid of these congressional hearings or, better yet, the Congress members themselves.
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