Bessent walks back shutdown cost estimate, cites $15 billion weekly hit to US economy
Treasury secretary initially said the government shutdown cost $15 billion a day before correcting to $15 billion a week, citing White House economic analysis.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday estimated that the government shutdown could cost the US economy as much as $15 billion a week, a Treasury official said, correcting Bessent's comments from earlier in the day that the cost could be up to $15 billion per day.
The official said that Bessent was referring to a White House Council of Economic Advisers report on the shutdown that produced a $15 billion per week figure.
Bessent used the incorrect estimate in two separate appearances earlier on Wednesday, while urging Democrats to "be heroes" and side with Republicans to end it.
Bessent told a news conference that the shutdown was starting to "cut into muscle" of the US economy.
The wave of investment into the US economy, including into artificial intelligence, is sustainable and is only getting started, but the federal government shutdown is increasingly an impediment, Bessent said.
"There is pent-up demand, but then President (Donald) Trump has unleashed this boom with his policies," Bessent said at a CNBC event held on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington.
"The only thing slowing us down here is this government shutdown," Bessent said.
He said that incentives in the Republican tax law and Trump's tariffs would keep the investment boom going and fuel continued growth.
"I think we can be in a period like the late 1800s when railroads came in, like the 1990s when we got the internet and office tech boom," Bessent said.