Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Biden officials need to drop the term “temporarily” because it’s too ambiguous
One of the Presidents Joe Biden‘s economic adviser was forced to defend that White House‘s dealing with inflation on Monday amid a barrage of questions about previous assurances from Biden officials that months of sky-high prices were only “temporary.”
Elsewhere, Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, vehemently denied a reporter’s suggestion that Biden took credit for falling prices but blamed the blame for price increases.Putin‘s price increase.’
“Yes, I completely disagree with this framing,” Bernstein said immediately.
“I think what’s happening here is a president working tirelessly to address the biggest constraint — probably the toughest constraint — that American households are facing right now, the budgetary impact of these increased prices.”
He added that there are now “some real results, partly stemming partly from concrete efforts he’s made”.
Bernstein appeared alongside press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre a day after the White House sent him on the airwaves on Sunday to dismiss politically devastating forecasts showing gas prices will rise again by the end of the year.
Over the past few days, average nationwide prices at the pump have fallen about 50 cents from June’s all-time high of $5 a gallon.
However, the gradual decline was overshadowed last week by the release of the June Inflation Report, which showed consumer prices rising 9.1 percent over a year – the highest jump since 1981.
It beat economists’ expectations that inflation would rise by about 8.8 percent.
And Biden and his officials are still paying the political price of calling July 2021 inflation “temporary” and transitory.
Bernstein took questions from several reporters on the subject, explaining that the White House changed gears because it felt the word was too vague to resonate with Americans.
“I think it has to do with the ambiguity about the length of that word – that’s what it has to do with. I think it needs to remove the ambiguity about the length of that word,” the consultant explained.
Biden himself said the latest inflation report was “unacceptably high,” but claimed the numbers were out of date
“Some people hear ‘temporarily’ and think about it for weeks and months. Others hear ‘temporarily’, most likely economists who have been accustomed to the broader ups and downs of cycles and think of longer periods.’
He said the “lack of specificity” of the “temporal cadence implied by that word introduced a degree of ambiguity that did not serve the debate very well”.
But Bernstein declined to say whether the government found it “politically problematic” in addition to not being helpful.
“I think when it comes to the fact that inflation is politically problematic – you’ve heard the President say over the past few days that it is – that inflation is unacceptably high and that bringing it down is the absolute number one priority domestically is,” the economist said.
“And I think that’s all you need to know to know what he’s sending his economics team to do on that front.”
Speaking to another reporter, Bernstein also excused the Biden administration for being “cautious” in opting for the “temporary” label.
“I think if you look at the general trajectory that the projections were pointing into, that was generally how we were trying to talk about it. And I think that’s worth going back and checking out,” he said.
US inflation rose to 9.1 percent in June, the highest since 1981 and better than economists had forecast
At the start of the briefing, he claimed that recent economic data on unemployment and consumer spending were “inconsistent” with gloomy forecasts of a looming recession.
Indeed, the President has dramatically shifted his focus over the last year to make inflation his top priority, even though he has done relatively little to slow the rise in prices, which is being seen not just in the US but around the world.
While calling the 9.1 percent inflation report unacceptable, Biden also argued that it is “outdated” because it doesn’t show the fall in gas prices across the country in recent weeks.
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Bernstein predicted gas prices would continue to trend lower for the rest of July.
The White House recognized the price drop on Monday afternoon.
“The work we have done, the work we will continue to do, will bring relief [of] $25 a month for American families,” said Jean-Pierre at the podium.
“On average, what matters to teachers is what matters to firefighters, what matters to nurses and ordinary people. The President will continue to work to bring prices down.’
