Biden admin pressed on inflation timeline: 'Can you define 'quickly'?'
Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese responds to criticism of the Biden administration's economic policies on 'The Story.'
President Biden's top economic adviser was pressed repeatedly on when the administration's plans to fight inflation will begin to bear fruit.
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told Fox News the global economy is facing serious inflationary challenges.
Deese in part blamed Vladimir Putin for "part" of the energy crisis the U.S. is facing, as many states remain above $5 per gallon for unleaded 87 octane.
In an interview on "The Story," anchor Martha MacCallum pressed Deese on his best projection on when inflation, now sitting around 9%, will return to a manageable 2%. Under President Trump, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which includes the energy market, averaged around that amount.
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Brian Deese (L) walks with U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern. (Reuters)
"Growth is projected to be 9/10 of a percent in the next quarter. When do you expect to see inflation that is in the 2% range based on everything that you are doing in your plan? When will that happen?" she asked.
Deese replied that there are multiple expert predictions, and pivoted to explaining how Congress and the White House can work together to bring down inflation.
"We can make real progress in places where we can act on our own. We're going to make we're going to do that as well. But everything that we are doing is oriented around those two goals to try to lower costs that families are facing right now through some of the concrete steps that I've talked about and lower the federal deficit," he said.
In return, MacCallum pressed again for a specific estimate, asking whether he believes it will be by Autumn, by 2023 or by 2024.
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"What I would say is we're focused on the policies that will actually accelerate that process," Deese replied, citing Putin's "brutal war in Ukraine" as having a gross effect on the price of energy. He said if the administration follows through on its plans, it will curb inflation quickly
MacCallum pressed again.
"What is quickly, can you define quickly? – Give me just a ballpark [estimate]," she said.
Deese replied the White House is in the "building business" rather than the "predicting business."
"[Y]ou talk about stable and steady growth and your team talks about the transition to stable and steady growth," MacCallum later added. "Yet we've got 8.6% inflation and you've got negative growth in the last GDP [figures]. And the projection for this quarter is 0.9%."
"Why not just lower corporate taxes to encourage companies to come to America and to open here?"
Deese replied that Biden has successfully lowered the federal deficit, which complements the Federal Reserve's latest attempt to slow inflation.
MacCallum pointed out the deficit likely nosedived because the economy was shuttered during the pandemic, and therefore should mathematically drop when typical commerce resumed.
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