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The Scott Bessent Economy Message and the Save America Act: Jim Pfaff Live from the RNC Midterm Convention | Sep 9, 2026

Published: September 9, 2026
Network: TCC Live — RNC Midterm Convention coverage, Dallas
Analysis: Conservative Caucus President Jim Pfaff

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About twelve minutes before President Donald Trump was due on stage at the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas on September 9, 2026, Jim Pfaff was at the desk in The Conservative Caucus media suite naming the line he thought Republicans should carry out of the hall. It came not from a candidate but from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Pfaff called the Scott Bessent economy message the message for moving forward with success in November: rebuilding an economy in which Americans choose what they want for themselves instead of the government choosing for them. From there Pfaff worked through the four years under Joe Biden, the numbers he says polls do not capture, the roughly 92% negative media coverage he says drives those polls, and the one bill he wants Congress to move before the election — the Save America Act.

Topics Covered

• The Scott Bessent Economy Message: Americans Decide, Not the Government
• Four Years of Lives Designed for You
• The Numbers the Polls Miss — and 92% Negative Coverage
• The Save America Act and Who Is Actually Voting
• From the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas: Minutes Before the Trump Speech
• Key Takeaways

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The Scott Bessent Economy Message: Americans Decide, Not the Government

Pfaff opened by telling viewers to note what Bessent had just said. The Scott Bessent economy message, as he heard it, was not a list of statistics but a description of who does the deciding.

“He’s talking about rebuilding an economy where the American people choose what they want for themselves, not the government choosing for them.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

That is the message Pfaff wants Republican candidates to take out of Dallas and into their own states and districts. If they push it forward using the energy of what the Trump administration has accomplished and carry it directly to the people, he said, they can pull off a great win in November; if they are not willing to do that, it is going to be very difficult to get anywhere. He heard candidates say from the stage that night that they want to take it on, and told viewers to encourage them to keep going. His instruction to the candidates was blunt: do not just do it here on the stage, take it to the people you are talking to.

He has been making the same argument all week — from the TCC suite in Dallas, from the studio, and in interviews around the country, as in our coverage of the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas. There are a lot of things working for Republicans, he said, if they are willing to grab on to them.

Four Years of Lives Designed for You

The contrast he drew is with the administration that just ended. Americans, he said, emerged from four years under Joe Biden — certainly under Biden’s staff, and maybe, he allowed, under Barack Obama as well — in which the arrangement was not about you deciding how you were going to live your life. Promises were made about things that were said to work for you, things the government was going to design for you. Pfaff called those promises false.

“Americans don’t need their lives designed for them. That’s what the Trump administration’s been about — you designing your own life.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Candidates, he said, have to distinguish themselves from the inflationary, job-destroying, government-growing policies of the Biden administration and name the reductions that followed: workers who make part of their living on tips, people who work overtime, and Social Security recipients who now do not pay taxes on that income. Voters need to know Republicans will stand with them there, Pfaff said, because Democrats will take it away as quickly as possible.

He also put a number on the shrinking of government itself: federal employment at its lowest level since 1966, with regulatory reform dramatically reducing the effort government spends inside people’s lives. Bessent, he added, is working hard to get the money right and is having some success with it.

The Numbers the Polls Miss — and 92% Negative Coverage

Pfaff does not accept that the polling reflects the country. He said he does not believe the President’s numbers are as bad as the 30s, though they are probably not above 50% right now, and he traced the gap to coverage rather than performance. The last figure he had seen was that roughly 92% of media hits about Donald Trump — anything they talk about — are negative.

“It’s all about a media that keeps driving home a negative message.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

The purpose, as he described it, is to inject a feeling in you, a belief that things aren’t working and that Trump is failing — which he called a flat-out lie, because what the President is doing is working. He named the organizations on the same level as the TCC suite: ABC News, NBC News, and sometimes CBS News, which he said is getting a little better but not much. The message they put out, he said, is that your life is not your own, that it belongs to the government and you answer to it.

“The American Republic was founded on we the people. It is popular sovereignty. We are the kings of this nation, not the government.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

“Murder is at a 70-year low in this country.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

These, he said, are things polls do not show clearly: you have to repeat what has been happening and show the numbers, because people already feel the change in their own lives.

The Save America Act and Who Is Actually Voting

The second half of his case was about who casts the ballots. The neglect at the border under Biden was purposeful, he said — a wish to replace Americans with foreign-born people — and with 20 million foreign-born people here, hundreds of thousands of whom he says are voting, that is impossible to overcome, because Americans do not want it.

His example was New York City. The numbers on Zohran Mamdani’s win are very clear, he said: it was not New Yorkers who elected him but people who had lived there less than ten years, in most cases less than five. Those voters brought Mamdani across the finish line over Andrew Cuomo — whose way of doing things, Pfaff contends, is not much better than the Democrat socialists’, though what Mamdani represents is definitely not an American ideal. Translate that nationwide, he said, and a lot of people who are not American citizens have been involved in these elections — the constituency Democrats can appeal to, because they do not appeal to Americans.

That is why he wants Congress back on the bill. Republicans have to determine that they will move the Save America Act, and Pfaff said he hopes the President pushes for it. There is discussion, he said, that Vice President JD Vance is seriously considering taking up his role as president of the Senate to push it through — the same fight we covered in our earlier report on the Save America Act.

“80% of Americans support the Save America Act. They support only citizens voting.”
— Jim Pfaff, President, The Conservative Caucus

Even if the bill does not pass and Republicans only have the fight over it, Pfaff said the American people will respond positively — and the voters it reaches are the independents, who may or may not come out, or may vote the other way for lack of confidence in Republicans. Independent voters are what is at stake, he said, and they came out in droves for Donald Trump in 2024. Trump is not on the ballot this year; he will be out promoting the cycle and urging people to vote Republican, but candidates have to say plainly that they are with him and then talk about the agenda itself.

Republican candidates have to build confidence in the American people, Pfaff said — by saying they are for the voters and against the restructuring of America Democrats would impose if they come to power, by changing the paradigm that lets foreign-born people hold sway over elections, and by building out policies that help people live their lives better.

From the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas: Minutes Before the Trump Speech

Pfaff was broadcasting from the TCC media suite, with the President due on stage in about twelve minutes and the run-up presentations about seven minutes out. The arena was almost entirely filled, he said, with a large crowd that had come from all over the country at great expense. He invited viewers to put questions in the comments and said the Caucus would address what it could.

The speech he singled out was Senator Tim Scott’s. Pfaff said he was inspired by where Scott put justice: that we truly have faith in God, that the God of the universe judges nations, and that the only way to have justice in a country is to recognize we are accountable to God rather than accept a relativistic view of justice — a justice system made to work for one side politically instead of blind Lady Justice delivering the same outcomes under the law, treating everyone the same. The country lived in an unjust system under the Biden administration, he said, one that killed opportunity for Americans, and that has changed under Trump. He told viewers to listen closely for whether the President made the same point.

He closed with the Caucus’s own week. TCC missed an opportunity to interview Lee Greenwood and hoped to pick it up the next day, with more guests coming to the suite. Pfaff told viewers to follow the Caucus on social media, said the broadcast would return to the live feed, and promised the team would come back on afterward to talk about what the President said and its impact.

Key Takeaways

1. The Scott Bessent economy message is the November message – Pfaff says the Treasury Secretary’s remarks that night — rebuilding an economy where Americans choose for themselves rather than the government choosing for them — are what Republican candidates should carry into November.
2. Candidates have to take it off the stage – Saying it in Dallas is not enough. Pfaff wants candidates carrying the message to voters in their own states, saying plainly they are with President Trump and then explaining what the agenda does.
3. The record polls do not capture – Pfaff’s list: incomes rising for Americans without college degrees, over 200,000 jobs last month, inflation stable to falling, no federal tax on tips, overtime and Social Security income, federal employment at its lowest since 1966, and murder at a 70-year low under Kash Patel’s FBI and Todd Blanche’s Justice Department.
4. 92% negative coverage explains the numbers – Pfaff says roughly 92% of media hits about Trump are negative, meant to make people believe things aren’t working, and that the outlets on his own level of the arena push the idea that your life belongs to the government.
5. Move the Save America Act before November – Pfaff says 80% of Americans support it and support only citizens voting. He wants Congress to move it, amid discussion that JD Vance is seriously considering taking up his role as president of the Senate, and says that even if it does not pass, having the fight will draw a positive response and speak to independent voters.
6. Justice is part of the argument – Pfaff pointed to Tim Scott’s speech: nations are judged on whether they deliver justice, and blind Lady Justice treating everyone the same under the law is the standard he says the Biden administration abandoned.

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About The Conservative Caucus:
The Conservative Caucus is a grassroots public policy action organization, formed in 1974. Headed by President Jim Pfaff, the Caucus is committed to advancing free enterprise, limited government, and traditional values.

Originally broadcast Sep 9, 2026 live from The Conservative Caucus media suite at the 2026 RNC Midterm Convention, Dallas.