Vice President JD Vance said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has a plan to address the nation’s roughly $40 trillion debt, arguing the administration can grow the economy faster than the debt accumulates.“[Bessent] has had a very discreet plan, of course, supported by the president of the United States, to get the United States to a point where our economy is growing faster than our debt,” Vance said on Newsmax’s Carl Higbie Frontline.“And if you look, we are on track. So, even though the debt is too high, even though we inherited this debt bomb from the Biden administration, we actually do have a plan to get the economy growing faster than the debt, and that’s the most important thing,” Vance added.
Earlier this week, the Treasury Department announced the national debt had surpassed $40 trillion. Its chief, Bessent, said he believes the U.S. can grow its way out of the debt burden.“There’s nothing magic about the $40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that,” Bessent told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street co-host Sara Eisen.Bessent also attributed part of the recent increase to the temporary impact of tariff refunds mandated by the Supreme Court’s February ruling against President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs. He said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would implement tariffs at “the same level,” adding that he expects 2026 tariff revenue to be roughly comparable to 2025.Bessent also argued that the $40 trillion figure does not fully capture the nation’s fiscal picture because the government itself holds a significant portion of the debt.
