suisse's nazi past. that absurd -- observed conduct is in fact a spit in the face to the victims of the holocaust. the united states congress won't tolerate and shouldn't tolerate that kind of evil here in the 21st century. and neither will those brave souls long past that lived through the nazi evil. they stand guard as our sp spiritual strength. so let this be a message to the bank obstructionists that this senator, as chair of the senate judiciary committee, i'll leave no stone unturned when it comes to nazi evils, and neither will senator whitehouse. i yield the floo for small

businesses are the highest in the whole world. the highest in the c whole worl. why can we not bring them down and pay what europe pays? small businesses, it is like the second-highest expense for them. you willss have some impact the, but those costs on our small business, including the would like to get them down and get your help in doing that lower c for hardworking people or to give billionaires another break. now, mr. bessent has a long history as an investment manager helping rich clients get even

richer. in fact, helping rich people get richer has been a very profitable business for him. mr. bessent is now a billionaire himself. he owns not one but two multimillion-dollar mansions, including one in the about a ham has and he has hundreds of millions of dollars in investments. he spent a lot of motion to proceed, but he saved money in one area. he hasn't paid the taxes he owes. according to an aanalysis from the congressional tax experts, mr. bessent has refused to pay $2 million in taxes that he owed on his hedge fund earnings just in the past three years. and mr. bessent has no demonstrated track record of fighting to make life better or more affordable for working people. so let's start with some of trump's economic plans that mr. bessent would be in charge

of advancing. right now republicans in the white house and in congress are working through their plans to extend tax breaks for billionaires and giant corporations, paid for in part with major cuts to health care. in plain english, republicans are hoping you won't notice major budget cuts for nursing homes that take care of your grandpa or the cuts in school lunches for poor kids. move grandpa out of the nursing home and let the little kids go hungry in order to make sure that a tiny handful of billionaires get a few more truckloads of cash from uncle sam. there's a truth no one can escape -- someone has to pay to run this country. folks like scott bessent think the burden should be just a little heavier on working people because billionaires like him are smarter than everyone else.

one place or the other, someone has to pay. so during his hearing, i asked mr. bessent about those cuts for billionaires. i asked if there were any billionaires already rich enough that they didn't need north tax cut. and mr. bessent said, with that it was unwise to single out anyone. not even billionaires. you wouldn't want to single out a billionaire like jeff bezos who pays a lower rate than a boston schoolteacher. you wouldn't want to single out a billionaire like mark zuckerberg whose company paid a small tax rate despite making $40 billion in profits. you wouldn't want to single sought a billionaire like elon musk who is more focused on flying to mars than making life better phon working families here on earth.

those billionaires had better seats at donald trump's inauguration than trump's own cabinet members. those billionaires dominate the american economy and republican plans to give them more tax breaks. this is the payout for trump's, quote, rich-as-hell donors. and mr. bessent is another billionaire ready to do the hard work of cutting taxes for every billionaire in america, himself included. the top economic issue today is how do we lower costs for families and build an economy that works, not just for the wealthy and the well-connected but an economy that works for everyone? i'm hammering out plans to make it a little easier for families to be able to pay their bills, to buy a home, a -- and to build some financial security. trump's tax breaks for billionaires is the same old

republican playbook of trickle-down economics -- help the rich get rich he had and leave everyone else behind. but that's not the trump administration's only bad economic idea. mr. bessent has been an advocate for deregulating wall street and letting big banks load up on risk. deregulate wall street -- yeah, a lot of people remember how that pproach brought our economy to its knees back in 2008. people who remember include the millions of people who lost their homes, the millions who lost their jobs, the millions who lost their savings. and now, once again, president trump wants to run that same economic play, and mr. bessent is the guy he's picked to do it. we don't need less oversight of giant banks and wall street morphs and shake he is -- movers

and shakers. risk is building in the system. the too-big-too-fail banks are quietly taking on riskier investments. the shadowy private credit market has loaded up on highly leveraged loans. and after waves of catastrophic losses, the insurance industry is facing a reckoning that even climate change deniers can't ignore. without significant changes, another financial crash is coming. as we learned, those big crashes fall hardest on hardworking people who are just trying to make a living. a billionaire willing to roll along on deregulation poses a threat to the economic well-being of every american. and a billionaire who spout -- who supports more tax cuts for every single billionaire in america is not someone who is watching out for hardworking families.