Bessent has 'very discreet plan' to reduce the $40 trillion national debt, Vance says

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has a "very discreet plan" to increase economic growth so that it rises faster than the $40 trillion national debt, and the plan has President Donald Trump's backing. 

Vance said that the Trump administration inherited America's debt problem from the Biden-Harris administration, and the problem is that the debt grows faster than the American GDP.

"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 told Newsmax's Carl Higbie. 

A 2024 analysis by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that Trump's policies during his first term added $8.4 trillion to the national debt over a 10-year period. That's compared with the $4.3 trillion Biden approved in his first three years and five months in office. 

Excluding policies addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, the group estimated that Trump's policies added $4.8 trillion in the 10-year period, compared with $2.2 trillion for Biden.