Senate committee advances nomination for Trump Treasury pick
The Senate Finance Committee voted 16-11 on Tuesday morning to advance the nomination of Scott Bessent, President Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary.
Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) bucked party lines to join Republicans in backing the nomination. But the vote did not come without last-minute opposition from Democrats.
Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he “strongly” opposed the nomination and implored his colleagues to do the same, arguing the billionaire is “not square on his taxes.”
“He has opted out of paying his fair share of his Medicare taxes. The IRS has gone to court twice to ban this particular scheme that Mr. Bessent is using,” Crapo said. “Treasury policy says what Mr. Bessent is doing is against the law.”
Senate Democrats have accused Bessent of avoiding paying nearly a million dollars in Medicare taxes while serving as a partner at Key Square Group.
“Thirty years ago, nominees for Cabinet positions withdrew their nominations for failing to pay probably hundreds of dollars, at worst, thousands of dollars in taxes,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R-R.I.) said on Tuesday, adding, “and we have an individual who has dodged $900,000 in contributions to Medicare, which, to me, is very telling.”
Whitehouse said the issue speaks to a “double standard” in the nation. “If you're a billionaire, you're not expected to follow the rules.”
Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) pushed back on the criticism, however, saying the “implication that was made here, that he has failed to pay his taxes – that is simply false.”
“The issue is one on which the nominee has filed his taxes in compliance with standard existing tax law, but the Internal Revenue Service, not just with regard to this nominee, but with regard to many, many taxpayers, is seeking to change its interpretation of the law at issue,” he said.
“And if the Internal Revenue Service's change of that interpretation is accepted, then he would owe taxes, as would many, many other people,” he said. “This issue is in court, not in a case that he has brought, but in a case that another taxpayer has brought against the IRS trying to change the rules.”
The chair went on to say that Bessent has said he “fully complied with traditional tax law and is prepared, if the IRS position prevails in court and the rules change, to pay the tax that is due.”