Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent snapped at Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) instead of directly answering her question about whether tariffs have driven inflation too high, in a heated exchange on Tuesday.
The clash unfolded before the House Financial Services Committee, where Bessent appeared as the sole witness for his annual testimony on the state of the international financial system, according to the committee’s hearing notice.
Waters, the panel’s ranking Democrat, used her five minutes to press the secretary for yes-or-no answers on the economy — and didn’t get them.
“If tariffs are not inflationary, as you claimed in your previous testimony, then why has inflation increased by more than 3% over the past year?” Waters asked at the hearing. “Do you deny that inflation is too high at 3%? Yes or no?”
“Representative Waters —” Bessent began.
“Yes or no, Mr. Secretary!” she pressed.
“You’re not making sense!” Bessent shot back.
“Reclaiming my time!” Waters said.
“No!” the secretary answered.
“It’s the gentlelady’s time,” said committee Chairman French Hill (R-AR), stepping in as the two talked over each other.
“The time belongs to the gentlelady?” Waters asked.
“Indeed,” Hill replied.
“Indeed, it does,” Waters said, pivoting to the national debt.
“And so that’s not good enough, sir. You and President Trump, the so-called conservatives, you have overseen an increase in the debt to a record $40 trillion. $40 trillion,” Waters said. “You have promised reduced deficits but delivered only higher numbers and [higher costs] for American households.”
Earlier in her questioning, Waters had zeroed in on Treasury yields — the interest rate the government pays to borrow money and a key benchmark for U.S. mortgage rates, according to Bloomberg.
“Mr. Secretary, do you agree that these high Treasury yields, or interest rates on Americans’ bonds, mean that loans paid by families to fix a roof or buy a car will also be expensive?” Waters asked him.
“The U.S. bond market has been the best-performing major bond market in the world,” Bessent answered.
“Yes or no, Mr. Secretary,” Waters said. “Reclaiming my time!”
The exchange came a day after the 10-year Treasury yield briefly climbed above 5% for the first time since 2023, Bloomberg reported, as inflation concerns collided with the government’s growing borrowing needs.
Bessent had struck a defiant tone about bond markets just days earlier. “I am the house now,” he said at a Texas event on Sept. 8, daring traders to bet against his push to hold yields down, according to Fortune.