Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent fired off an epic comeback at Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on April 22, 2026, after Van Hollen accused him of allowing rich folk to dodge their taxes. Van Hollen made his accusation during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, accusing Bessent of mishandling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by slashing the number of staff members who work for the agency.
Van Hollen then attempted to make the case that this has negatively impacted the IRS’s delivery service. Bessent, taking a move out of President Donald Trump’s playbook, decided not to take the accusation lying down, firing back at him after he accused him of deliberately allowing wealthy individuals to get away with not paying taxes.
“Mr. Secretary, what you’ve done is provided a windfall to very wealthy people who don’t pay their taxes,” Van Hollen said during the hearing. “Senator, why would I do that?” Bessent fired back. “Why would I do that? What is your theory of the case, Senator? What is your theory of the case?”
The fireworks between the two continued to glow brighter and brighter as Van Hollen’s time ran out. “Because this administration has time after time tilted the tax code in favor of very wealthy people,” he stated at the last second. Bessent responded by simply rolling his eyes at the ridiculous insinuation made by the Maryland Democrat.
According to The Daily Caller, budget documents reveal that the IRS is planning to cut its workforce by another 4,000 during the next phase, aiming to reduce the workforce to 50,000 people. The cuts come after former President Joe Biden developed plans to increase funding for the IRS by leaps and bounds and wanted to increase the number of individuals working for the least popular agency in the government.
Van Hollen claimed that the IRS delivery system had declined due to staffing shortages, but Bessent denied that was the case. “What I’ve seen, senator, is that the Democrats said that the filing system was going to be a disaster, it was a home run,” Bessent said. “And what you are nitpicking me on now is the difference between answering a call in six minutes and nine minutes.”
“And sir, let me tell you the way the calls used to work. That the IRS under the Biden administration would answer the call in six minutes and the taxpayer would be on hold for 20 or 30 minutes. Now, when a taxpayer’s call gets answered, they get serviced right away,” he added. Folks showed strong support for Bessent on a Facebook post for the story.
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“Van Hollen should know better than to bring a margarita to a gunfight,” one user quipped. Another praised Bessent for his response, writing, “Secretary Bessent is brilliant. Best secretary of the Treasury in decades.” A third user wrote, “Leave it to a dumb Democrat to argue with somebody with brains. It’ll never work out Democrat, you wind up in pain. Democrats, you’re behind the eight ball and that’s how it remains.”
One commenter noted that the delivery service for them has never been more efficient, saying, “I filed Monday afternoon in early February and got the deposit on Friday morning. Yes, the same week. Never in 50 years of filing my taxes has that happened.” Another individual wrote, “I’m sick of these old farts in Congress. Van Hollen needs a drink, I believe.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video