Rep. Maxine Waters Talks Bessent's Agenda, Republican Control

Published Nov 25, 2024, 8:20 PM

Rep. Maxine Waters (D) California discusses Scott Bessent's 3-3-3 agenda and Republican control of the House with Bloomberg's Kailey Leinz.

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The news of the day, including of course, the late Friday announcement that Scott Bessett will be, if Donald Trump gets his way, the next Secretary of the Treasury.

Course keeping in mind that.

If Besson is to be the next Treasury Secretary, he does still need to win Senate confirmation, but he has had a pretty clear narrative of the agenda he would like to pursue this kind of three three three policy. He says, reduced debt to three percent from the current six percent, make GDP growth go up to three percent, and pump three million more barrels a day of crude in the United States. He also has floated the idea of a shadow FED chair and had this to say to Joe Matthew and myself last month when he joined us about the influence Donald Trump might want to have on FED policy.

He has a deep understanding of financial markets, as opposed to most politicians, so he wants to be in in the conversation. He has very well formed opinions. He has a lot of private sector friends, so he just wants to be a voice.

We want to add another voice to our program here on Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and Radio. In turns of the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, the Democratic Congressman from California, Maxine Waters, is joining me now. Congresswoman, thanks so much for being here. I would love first just your reaction to the nomination of Scott Besson. Will he be an adequate steward of the US economy.

Let me just say this, as the world has been watching President Trump's appointees, it is not about competence.

It is not about the ability.

To be an advocate for the people and protect investors and do all that needs to be done to ensure that the people of this country, that the Americans have someone looking out for their best teters. He has made his appointments based on loyalty. Loyalty and that.

Means they will do whatever he wants.

And so you know, I consider the new public policy will be whatever Trump wants by his appointees who have been.

Chosen because of their loyalty.

So I can I get into whether or not this appointee, As you know, the Treasury is different from anybody else. But I expect right now that we're going to be up against appointees at every level of government that are loyal to Trump, and they're going to take this country in a whole new direction, as identified in Project twenty twenty five.

So when it comes to Scott Beston specifically Congressoan, do you think the market is perhaps misplaced in its notion that he actually could be something of about and sing force for the president, a kind of steady hand, if you will, when it comes to the extent of tariffs that should be pursued, for example, you don't believe that to be true.

No, I do not believe it to be true. Again, and let me reiterate.

These appointments are based on whether they're going to do what Trump wants them to do. It is not based on any evidence that they can be independent, that they in fact will be looking out for the best censures of the people.

And so I'm prepared.

I'm prepared for whatever Trump wants them to do, and I'm prepared to fight that. I'm prepared to be able to help organize that committee the democratic side to educate the public about what they're.

Doing and what's going on. So I'm not going to back.

Up and say we can't get anything done. We're going to continue to try and put before the American people the kind of public policy that they expect appointees and elected officials to do on behalf of the people.

And then we want to.

See if we could not only educate and inform, but whether or not the American people are going to understand that they now have a president of the United States of America who has no respect for the Constitution, does not care what president is on any subject, and that he's going to do what he wants to do. And so I'm looking for him to reveal himself as he has identified himself.

Well, Congresswoman, as you look ahead to the work you'd like to continue doing as a ranking member of House Financial Services, you're going to be working with another Republican atop that committee. Is there's jockeying now for the chairmanship, a number of candidates, of course who are vying. Is there someone you'd most like to work with that you think the most productive bipartisan legislative work out of the committee could happen under.

That's a possibility.

But if I identify them right now to you for the public, this probably would lessen their opportunity of getting chosen. So yes, I hope there could be someone that follows that description, but I can't tell you whom at this point, So.

Just one of the candidates in my understanding, you think you could work with on a bipartisan basis of the three or four that have been floated, Well, to.

Tell you the truth, I could work with members from the opposite side of the isle pretty much in the way that I've worked with the McHenry and others. But we've got to see who's willing to step up to the plate and do what is necessary to protect our investors, do what's necessary to hold on to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that's protecting our consumers. Any of those who can do that, I can certainly work with them.

Well, we have seen some bipartisan work coming out of the MIDI in this committee in one hundred and eighteenth Congress, including bill that advanced out of the committee and ultimately passed on the House floor of the Fit twenty one Act, the Market Structure crypto legislation in Congressman, and I wonder what you think the future is of those kinds of legislative initiatives now that Republicans won't just have control of your body, but the Senate as well.

Well, let me tell you.

I've worked very closely with mce henry where we've tried to get stable going.

Our efforts have been about guard rails.

We are not opposed to legitimate legislation that appears to be in the best interest of the people of this country, and there may be some crypto that would like to have guard rails. If there are guardrails that we can agree to working with all of the entities that are interested in and are part of developing if we're ever going to get there, and that means the Treasury, that means the Federal Reserve, that means the sec that means all of these agencies have to come together with the President on crypto in order to have something that will have.

Guardrails and will not just be determined.

By the fact that crypto companies are trying to invade all of our financial services members with large contribution, etc.

Etc.

We know what's going on, and we think now they're going to have an opportunity to learn more about what crypto really is and how it works in this digital economy that we're involved in.

So we've got a lot of you.

Understanding, a lot of searching out, and a lot of educating to do and if we can work with anyone who's willing to do that and provide these guardrails ready.

And I think some of my members are.

And I do believe that some of the members who voted for the crypto legislation that you're talking about will no more now about what they voted for and be a lot more skeptical than they were or when they decided that they would give it a chance, that they would go ahead and vote in ways that they didn't quite understand. But I don't think that'll be the case anymore.

Well, you just mentioned their congresswoman, the SEC's role in this. The chair, Gary Gensler, of course, has announced that he will be stepping down on January twentieth, when this new president and new administration comes in. And I wonder, given the nominees for other regulatory agencies that we have already seen coming from Donald Trump, Brendan Carr, for example, at the FCC, what concern you might have about the kind of person who could ultimately fill the shoes that Gary Gensler is stepping out of.

Well, you know, a Gansler was an expert in crypto. He taught crypto at the University, and many of those in the crypto business did not like him, did not want him because they knew too much and he wanted guardrails. And he was absolutely the one who I believe should be in position to deal with securities as we understand them. Crypto is a security, It is not a commodity, and that's what the fight is all about, commodity versus security. And I don't know who can fill those shoes, but we'll have to see.

Well, we know gangsters will be out of those shoes in January. A term that goes much longer, though, and there's no sign that this person will be leaving in advance of the term being up. Is Michael Barr, the vice chair of Supervision at the Federal Reserve, who, of course initially put forward the Basel three end game proposal with higher capital requirements for big bangs, something many your colleagues on the Financial Services Committee and the President elect have been highly critical of.

How do you expect Michael.

Barr will fare under this new administration? Do you think that Donald Trump might actually try to fire or demote him?

Well, first of all, let me just go back and some of what you just said, I think I missed, But let me tell you if you mentioned Powell or at the Federal Reserve, he cannot fire him, and he's not going to leave, and we've already gotten him to make that a public statement, and so he'll be there. Now if you're talking about a Ginstler and why he would be stepping down, he knows Trump does not want him. Trump would fire him in a hot second, and so he's stepping down.

He will not be there.

I don't know much about a replacement, and whether or not they will come in with the same kind of understanding that the securities must be DELA and that crypto are securities.

And so if they come in already thinking that.

That's not the business of the sec the Securities Exchange Commission, that rather it is a commodity, then we have a problem. And so we've got all of these issues to work out.

A congressman I had asked, and I'm sorry if I was hard to understand. Michael Barr, the vice chair of Supervision at the Federal Reserve, who of course will oversee the future of capital requirements for big banks. What do you think his future holds in this incoming administry?

Let me just tell you.

We've got to continue to educate our members and the public on why it is so important that we have capital requirements and that we have what we need to protect against, you know, the kind of meltdown that we had in two thousand and eight.

You know, we cannot.

The lessons that have been learned about capital requirements, and so we're going to push very hard with all of the information, with all of the history about what took place when we had the meltdown in two thousand and eight, and this country was practically ruined because of a lack of the ability of the banks of this country to be able to ensure all of our depositors and investors that they could be safe.

All right, Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us here on Bloomberg TV and Radio. That is the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you.

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