Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announces creation of an "affordability czar"

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Sunday that his department will be creating an "affordability czar" to address high prices in the U.S. — a continuing concern for Americans which  Bessent says he is "laser focused on."

Bessent described the new role at the Treasury Department as "someone who picks the five or eight areas where this administration can make a big difference for working class Americans." He also previewed the creation of an "affordability council."

"I think President Trump said that he'll own the economy in six or 12 months, but I can tell you that we are working to get these prices down every day, but it took four years to get us here, and we've had five weeks so interest rates are down," Bessent said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." "That's a very good start toward housing affordability, toward auto affordability, and we are tackling this."

U.S. consumer confidence plummeted in February, marking the steepest monthly decline in over four years, a business research group said Tuesday, with inflation seemingly stuck and a trade war under President Trump seen by a growing number of Americans as inevitable. The report comes after U.S. consumers cut their spending in January by the most in nearly four years, according to Commerce Department data.

"The Conference Board survey is the 3rd data point in less than a week (after Fri's flash PMIs and Michigan sentiment report) making it abundantly clear that Trump-linked policy uncertainty is eroding confidence and tipping the economy (at least) into a slowdown (if not something worse)," said Adam Crisafulli, president of investment advisory firm Vital Knowledge, in a note.

A CBS News poll released Sunday showed that 49% of Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump's handling of the economy, and that 52% of Americans say the president  policies are causing grocery prices to go up.

Bessent said on "Face the Nation" that the perception of inflation by U.S. consumers is rooted in government overregulation during the Biden administration, and that consumers will feel the benefits of the current administration's deregulation efforts moving forward.

"President Trump was elected, one of the reasons was the affordability crisis, and we are setting about doing that. So after four years, four years of disastrous policies, they were running these gigantic deficits that the- that led to the affordability problem, massive government regulations," Bessent said. "So we are in the process of deregulating, which will free the supply side, and we are cutting back the government spending."