Newsfront
Bid to Boost Economy
Trump’s Ambitious ‘3-3-3’
His new Treasury secretary plans a trifecta of
growth, says economist Stephen Moore.
S
cott bessent, incoming Treasury secretary in the new Trump administration, has made a splash with his
“3-3-3 plan” to supercharge the econo- my and bring the Mount Everest-sized debt down to more manageable levels. Bessent is a former hedge fund
manager who achieved great success predicting the future of the economy. He has a pretty clear crystal ball. His plan — which President Don-
ald Trump has embraced — aims for three ambitious goals over his second term. 1: Increase economic growth to 3%
per year for four years. 2: Cut the budget deficit to 3% of
gross domestic product. 3: Raise U.S. energy production by 3
million barrels of oil per day. The two big questions everyone is
asking are: First, do these goals make sense? And second, can he and Trump pull it off, or are they too grandiose and out of reach? The answer to both questions is: It
6 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2025
won’t be easy, especially given the hole that former President Joe Biden has dug, but yes, if Trump can get Con- gress to cooperate, we hit this policy trifecta. Let’s start with the first goal of
3%-plus growth per year. We’ve slipped far below that trend since 2000. But prior to that the average growth rate since the end of World War II was closer to 3.2%. We had periods under Presidents
John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton where growth ran faster than 5%. The economic eggheads at the
International Monetary Fund see growth flatlining at 2.2% for the next decade. But they aren’t taking into
account the Trump economic agenda — which will be steroid injections into the economy. What will fuel faster growth will
be making the Trump tax cuts perma- nent and continuing to cut business tax rates, repealing job-killing regula- tions, which are now the equivalent of a $2 trillion tax on U.S. output, and producing more energy — convenient- ly one of the other three goals. We will also need more legal immi-
gration worker visas, given the aging of 80 million baby boomers — like me. We have a special advantage over the rest for the world of enhancing our workforce with hard-working and tal- ented immigrants. What will give a big boost to growth
LOWER TAX RATE, HIGHER REVENUE 80%
Top Marginal Income Tax Rate
70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%
1981 1991 2001 2011 2021 SOURCE: IRS, Tax Foundation Top 1% Income Tax Share
50% 40% 30% 20% 10%
Top Marginal Income Tax Rate
Top 1% Income Tax Share
BESSENT/TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES / TRUMP/REBECCA NOBLE/GETTY IMAGES
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