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The Hill
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Bessent says report he called Musk ‘a fraud' is ‘fake news'
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addressed his reported clashes with Elon Musk during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, rejecting claims that he called Musk a 'fraud' as 'fake news.' After Musk's explosive fallout with President Trump last week, longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon told The Washington Post that the tech billionaire and Bessent had a physical altercation, which the White House denied, and that Bessent called Musk 'a total fraud' in a heated exchange about the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)'s efforts to cut government spending. Bannon helmed the conservative outlet Breitbart News for several years until his ouster from the site in 2018, following a brief stint in Trump's first administration. 'I know Elon Musk body checked you at the White House,' Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said to Bessent during Ways & Means hearing on the Treasury Department. 'You know that?' Bessent shot back. 'You believe what you read on Breitbart, that's what you are telling this Congress.' Coincidentally, Bessent recently quoted a Breitbart article on the social platform X in response to mass protests in Los Angeles against Trump's immigration crackdown. Gomez continued in the hearing, 'If it's too sensitive for you, I won't ask that question,' prompting a retort from the South Carolina native with an apparent strike at South African-born Musk. 'I'll take South Carolina over South Africa any day,' Bessent said. Trump confirmed that Musk and Bessent had 'a little bit of a shouting match' but denied it turned violent. 'They did have an argument, but I didn't see a lot of physicality there,' the president told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Fox News
02-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Trump's tax overhaul hits GOP turbulence over Biden-era green incentives
FIRST ON FOX: The House GOP's standoff over the former Biden administration's green energy subsides is colliding with Republicans' plans for a massive bill advancing President Donald Trump's agenda. Thirty-eight House Republicans are writing to Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chamber's top tax writer, urging a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the coming budget reconciliation bill. "We are deeply concerned that President Trump's commitment to restoring American energy dominance and ending what he calls the 'green new scam' is being undermined by parochial interests and short-sighted political calculations," the lawmakers wrote. They argued the IRA subsidies would cost American taxpayers roughly $1 trillion over the next decade. "The IRA contains eight major energy subsidies, each of which burdens taxpayers, inflates energy costs, and threatens the reliability of our power grid. Each of these subsidies props up unreliable energy sources while displacing dependable, proven energy like coal and natural gas," the letter said. The lawmakers then took direct aim at fellow Republicans who are pushing for some of the credits to remain intact. "Republicans ran—and won—on a promise to completely dismantle the IRA and end the left's green welfare agenda. The first chapter of our 2024 platform reaffirms our commitment to 'terminating the Socialist Green New Deal.' Despite our previously unified stance, some Members of our conference now feel compelled to defend wind and biofuel credits, advocate for carbon capture and hydrogen subsidies, or protect solar and electric vehicle giveaways," the letter said. "Keeping even one of these subsidies opens the door to retaining all eight." "How do we retain some of these credits and not operate in hypocrisy? The longstanding Republican position has been to allow the market to determine energy production. If every faction continues to defend their favored subsidies, we risk preserving the entire IRA because no clearly defined principle will dictate what is kept and what is culled." Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump's agenda on taxes, border security, national defense and energy, while also raising the debt limit. The budget reconciliation process allows them to do that by lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, thereby allowing the party controlling Congress and the White House to pass sweeping legislation while sidelining the opposition, in this case Democrats. Conservative fiscal hawks successfully got House GOP leaders to agree that the trillions of dollars of new spending in the bill – primarily for Trump's tax policies – must be offset by at least $1.5 trillion in federal funding cuts. Former President Joe Biden's IRA subsidies have been a significant flash point in that fight. In March, 21 House Republicans signed a letter urging their colleagues to preserve the green energy tax credit. "Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress – to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike," they wrote. That letter pointed out that investments have already been made in American entities with the understanding that those subsidies would have a 10-year window. "These timelines have been relied upon when it comes to capital allocation, planning, and project commitments, all of which would be jeopardized by premature credit phase outs or additional restrictive mechanisms such as limiting transferability," it said. They argued that changing that now could lead to rising energy costs for American families. The anti-IRA Republicans, however, said in their letter that the U.S.' growing green energy sector was the product of government handouts rather than genuine sustainable growth. "Leaving IRA subsidies intact will actively undermine America's return to energy dominance and national security," they said. "They are the result of government subsidies that distort the U.S. energy sector, displace reliable coal and natural gas and the domestic jobs they produce, and put the stability and independence of our electric grid in jeopardy." Meanwhile, House GOP leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have made clear they have issues with the wider bill, but share concerns about ending measures in use under the current administration and risking political blowback in GOP districts that have seen investments by entities that have benefited from the subsidies. Fox News Digital reached out to the Ways & Means Committee for comment but did not hear back by press time.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SCOOP: 38 GOP lawmakers say not repealing Biden's green agenda in Trump tax bill is 'hypocrisy'
FIRST ON FOX: The House GOP's standoff over the former Biden administration's green energy subsides is colliding with Republicans' plans for a massive bill advancing President Donald Trump's agenda. Thirty-eight House Republicans are writing to Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chamber's top tax writer, urging a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the coming budget reconciliation bill. "We are deeply concerned that President Trump's commitment to restoring American energy dominance and ending what he calls the 'green new scam' is being undermined by parochial interests and short-sighted political calculations," the lawmakers wrote. They argued the IRA subsidies would cost American taxpayers roughly $1 trillion over the next decade. Trump Eases Auto Tariffs As He Celebrates 100Th Day With Michigan Rally "The IRA contains eight major energy subsidies, each of which burdens taxpayers, inflates energy costs, and threatens the reliability of our power grid. Each of these subsidies props up unreliable energy sources while displacing dependable, proven energy like coal and natural gas," the letter said. Read On The Fox News App The lawmakers then took direct aim at fellow Republicans who are pushing for some of the credits to remain intact. "Republicans ran—and won—on a promise to completely dismantle the IRA and end the left's green welfare agenda. The first chapter of our 2024 platform reaffirms our commitment to 'terminating the Socialist Green New Deal.' Despite our previously unified stance, some Members of our conference now feel compelled to defend wind and biofuel credits, advocate for carbon capture and hydrogen subsidies, or protect solar and electric vehicle giveaways," the letter said. "Keeping even one of these subsidies opens the door to retaining all eight." "How do we retain some of these credits and not operate in hypocrisy? The longstanding Republican position has been to allow the market to determine energy production. If every faction continues to defend their favored subsidies, we risk preserving the entire IRA because no clearly defined principle will dictate what is kept and what is culled." Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump's agenda on taxes, border security, national defense and energy, while also raising the debt limit. The budget reconciliation process allows them to do that by lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, thereby allowing the party controlling Congress and the White House to pass sweeping legislation while sidelining the opposition, in this case Democrats. Conservative fiscal hawks successfully got House GOP leaders to agree that the trillions of dollars of new spending in the bill – primarily for Trump's tax policies – must be offset by at least $1.5 trillion in federal funding cuts. Former President Joe Biden's IRA subsidies have been a significant flash point in that fight. In March, 21 House Republicans signed a letter urging their colleagues to preserve the green energy tax credit. "Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress – to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike," they wrote. Defunding Dei: Here's How The Trump Administration Has Undone Biden's Very Prized Programs That letter pointed out that investments have already been made in American entities with the understanding that those subsidies would have a 10-year window. "These timelines have been relied upon when it comes to capital allocation, planning, and project commitments, all of which would be jeopardized by premature credit phase outs or additional restrictive mechanisms such as limiting transferability," it said. They argued that changing that now could lead to rising energy costs for American families. The anti-IRA Republicans, however, said in their letter that the U.S.' growing green energy sector was the product of government handouts rather than genuine sustainable growth. "Leaving IRA subsidies intact will actively undermine America's return to energy dominance and national security," they said. "They are the result of government subsidies that distort the U.S. energy sector, displace reliable coal and natural gas and the domestic jobs they produce, and put the stability and independence of our electric grid in jeopardy." Meanwhile, House GOP leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have made clear they have issues with the wider bill, but share concerns about ending measures in use under the current administration and risking political blowback in GOP districts that have seen investments by entities that have benefited from the subsidies. Fox News Digital reached out to the Ways & Means Committee for comment but did not hear back by press article source: SCOOP: 38 GOP lawmakers say not repealing Biden's green agenda in Trump tax bill is 'hypocrisy'
Fox News
01-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
SCOOP: 38 GOP lawmakers say not repealing Biden's green agenda in Trump tax bill is 'hypocrisy'
FIRST ON FOX: The House GOP's standoff over the former Biden administration's green energy subsides is colliding with Republicans' plans for a massive bill advancing President Donald Trump's agenda. Thirty-eight House Republicans are writing to Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chamber's top tax writer, urging a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the coming budget reconciliation bill. "We are deeply concerned that President Trump's commitment to restoring American energy dominance and ending what he calls the 'green new scam' is being undermined by parochial interests and short-sighted political calculations," the lawmakers wrote. They argued the IRA subsidies would cost American taxpayers roughly $1 trillion over the next decade. "The IRA contains eight major energy subsidies, each of which burdens taxpayers, inflates energy costs, and threatens the reliability of our power grid. Each of these subsidies props up unreliable energy sources while displacing dependable, proven energy like coal and natural gas," the letter said. The lawmakers then took direct aim at fellow Republicans who are pushing for some of the credits to remain intact. "Republicans ran—and won—on a promise to completely dismantle the IRA and end the left's green welfare agenda. The first chapter of our 2024 platform reaffirms our commitment to 'terminating the Socialist Green New Deal.' Despite our previously unified stance, some Members of our conference now feel compelled to defend wind and biofuel credits, advocate for carbon capture and hydrogen subsidies, or protect solar and electric vehicle giveaways," the letter said. "Keeping even one of these subsidies opens the door to retaining all eight." "How do we retain some of these credits and not operate in hypocrisy? The longstanding Republican position has been to allow the market to determine energy production. If every faction continues to defend their favored subsidies, we risk preserving the entire IRA because no clearly defined principle will dictate what is kept and what is culled." Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump's agenda on taxes, border security, national defense and energy, while also raising the debt limit. The budget reconciliation process allows them to do that by lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, thereby allowing the party controlling Congress and the White House to pass sweeping legislation while sidelining the opposition, in this case Democrats. Conservative fiscal hawks successfully got House GOP leaders to agree that the trillions of dollars of new spending in the bill – primarily for Trump's tax policies – must be offset by at least $1.5 trillion in federal funding cuts. Former President Joe Biden's IRA subsidies have been a significant flash point in that fight. In March, 21 House Republicans signed a letter urging their colleagues to preserve the green energy tax credit. "Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress – to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike," they wrote. That letter pointed out that investments have already been made in American entities with the understanding that those subsidies would have a 10-year window. "These timelines have been relied upon when it comes to capital allocation, planning, and project commitments, all of which would be jeopardized by premature credit phase outs or additional restrictive mechanisms such as limiting transferability," it said. They argued that changing that now could lead to rising energy costs for American families. The anti-IRA Republicans, however, said in their letter that the U.S.' growing green energy sector was the product of government handouts rather than genuine sustainable growth. "Leaving IRA subsidies intact will actively undermine America's return to energy dominance and national security," they said. "They are the result of government subsidies that distort the U.S. energy sector, displace reliable coal and natural gas and the domestic jobs they produce, and put the stability and independence of our electric grid in jeopardy." Meanwhile, House GOP leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have made clear they have issues with the wider bill, but share concerns about ending measures in use under the current administration and risking political blowback in GOP districts that have seen investments by entities that have benefited from the subsidies. Fox News Digital reached out to the Ways & Means Committee for comment but did not hear back by press time.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Republican lawmakers face clean-energy conundrum as they work on tax bill
By Bo Erickson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican lawmakers working to extend U.S. President Donald Trump's tax cuts legislation are facing a clean-energy conundrum back home, as major clean energy investments in their districts are at odds with Trump's skepticism of the industry. Eleven of the 26 Republicans on the House of Representatives' tax-writing Ways & Means committee, who are now crafting the extension of the 2017 tax cut legislation, represent areas that have seen hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in green energy investments in the last few years. Clean energy investments boomed after former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act passed a then-Democratic-controlled Congress in 2022, authorizing hundreds of billions of dollars of clean energy tax credits for businesses, most of which were not capped. Since then, businesses unveiled more than $165 billion of clean energy manufacturing investments nationwide, according to data tracked by pro-clean energy research firm, Atlas Public Policy, and Utah State University. The House Republicans are trying to cut at least $1.5 trillion in spending from the federal budget over the next decade, to partly offset a tax cut extension that's expected to cost more than $4.5 trillion over that time. More than 75% of the clean-energy investments -- almost $125 billion -- were targeted at Republican-held congressional districts, the data shows. Trump long derided electric vehicles as a "hoax," before he closely allied himself with Tesla and saying that he bought one of the cars at a White House event last month. But in his district east of Memphis, Tennessee, Representative David Kustoff touts investments by automaker Ford to build a new manufacturing hub for electric F-series pickups that were boosted by the legislation. Ford, and its South Korean partner, SK Innovation, contributed the bulk of the more than $6.5 billion in investments in the district in last four years, the most of any House Republican tax writer, according to the data. "It's so important for people in west Tennessee, economically, for us to be successful," Kustoff told the Jackson Rotary Club last week about the broader tax writing process. The White House in a document this month tried to convince House fiscal hawks working to advance the chamber's budget that new revenue to offset potential new costs in the tax bill will be generated by repealing the green energy tax credits "to the fullest extent possible," according to two people familiar with the pledge. Behind the scenes, Ford is working with lawmakers to maintain the tax credits, according to a person familiar with the talks. BALANCE OF DISTRICT VERSUS PARTY LINE Two other automakers, Honda and General Motors, each invested billions of dollars in electric vehicle battery plants for the next two districts with most clean energy investments on the committee. Representative Mike Carey cheered the estimated 2,000 jobs that Honda would create in his district southeast of Columbus, Ohio, and Representative Rudy Yakym said in a statement he was "thrilled about this historic investment" from GM in 2023 that included 1,700 manufacturing jobs for his district in South Bend, Indiana. A new rare earth magnet production facility for components of GM vehicles, drones and other electronics, was recently built in Representative Beth Van Duyne's district, a tax writer from Fort Worth, Texas. The company, MP Materials, advanced its goal to become "America's first fully-integrated rare earth magnet manufacturing facility" by investing $700 million in the facility and said in a 2024 press release they received an almost $60 million energy project tax credit, funded by the 2022 Biden-era law. Kustoff, Carey, Yakym and Van Duyne's offices declined to comment about their tax priorities. A GM spokesperson said the advanced manufacturing production tax credits "advance U.S. leadership in critical technologies" and led the automaker to announce thousands of jobs in three states. Nationwide, 16 of the top 20 House districts with recent clean energy manufacturing investments are represented by Republican lawmakers, according to the data. Many of them advocated to the tax committee last month to avoid "disruptive changes to our nation's energy tax structure." "This is a tough assignment for tax committee members that have renewable projects in their districts," Ryan Bernstein, who helps lead the energy practice at McGuireWoods Consulting, "You probably won't see a lot of the dialogue in public, which will create a black box for a while on what is going to be included or not." "When companies make decisions relying upon actions from federal or state government, it's really important that the government honor those commitments," said Josh Brown, president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, who mentioned Ford's large investment in the rural west of his state, "Any possibility that this investment could be pulled back or curtailed based on congressional action is very concerning." Sign in to access your portfolio
