Vice President Vance said Thursday night that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has a “very discreet plan” to shrink the nation’s debt.

“He [Bessent] has had a very discreet plan, of course, supported by the president of the United States, to get the United States to a point where our economy is growing faster than our debt,” Vance said on Newsmax’s “Carl Higbie Frontline.”

“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,” the vice president added.

On Thursday, Bessent claimed the U.S. can “grow” its way out of the national debt, which hit $40 trillion on Wednesday.

“There’s nothing magic about the $40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that,” Bessent told “Squawk on the Street” co-host Sara Eisen on CNBC.

“But what we do want to signal is I think there’s been a lot of misinformation in terms of what’s going on with the deficit, what’s going on with the deficit to GDP,” he added.

Bessent said that a temporary aspect of the debt comes from tariff refunds ordered by the Supreme Court in a February ruling against emergency tariffs from President Trump.

The Treasury Department head said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is going to implement “the same level of tariffs,” and that he expects the “2026 tariff income is going to be roughly what it was in ’25.”

Lawmakers have recently raised concerns over the national debt, decrying Congress’s inability to sufficiently deal with an issue that has become harder to ignore.

The GOP has commonly cited federal spending and entitlement programs as main causes behind the debt, with Democrats emphasizing the need for increased taxation of wealthy Americans and corporations as well as spending reforms.

The Hill ^ | August 20, 2026 | Tara Suter