White House press secretary Jen Psaki attempted to defend the Biden administration against rising concerns about record inflation. Psaki also asserted that President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda would help alleviate inflation and not exacerbate it.
During Friday’s White House press briefing, Psaki was asked about inflation and how it adversely affects Americans.
Psaki dismissed “a lot of talk about inflation” and claimed it is being weaponized as a “political cudgel and it shouldn’t be.”
She did admit, “It’s impacting, as you said, millions of Americans no matter their political party. And that’s certainly of concern to the president.”
Psaki said the Biden administration expects inflation “to substantially decelerate next year.”
The White House press secretary then touted the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and Biden’s sweeping $1.75 trillion social-policy and climate change Build Back Better bill as a remedy for the current inflation fiasco.
“Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that he will sign on Monday and the Build Back Better Bill that we’re working to move forward — will not add to inflationary pressure, and will ease inflationary pressure over the long term,” Psaki claimed, adding, “Our view is that the real risk here is inaction.”
However, a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that more Americans believe the vast government spending will hurt them than those who believe it would help them.
Americans are concerned that the massive federal spending bills could fuel even more inflation — which is currently at record levels.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed this week that the Consumer Price Index for October recorded a 6.2% increase over the last year, the largest increase in prices for consumer goods recorded in over 30 years. Grocery prices in October were 5.4% higher than a year ago. Prices for steak skyrocketed 24.9% compared to last October, eggs jumped 11.6% annually, chicken was 8.8% more expensive, cereal increased by 5%, and baby food prices were inflated by 7.9%. Heating oil prices have soared by a whopping 59% in the last year. Month-to-month prices for energy spiked 4.8%.
“One-in-four consumers cited inflationary reductions in their living standards in November, with lower income and older consumers voicing the greatest impact,” according to a survey by the University of Michigan.
Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Capital, warned, “Inflation is going to help push the economy into recession.”
“It’s a bunch of nonsense what everybody is saying about how inflation is a good problem, and it’s just a consequence of our strong economy,” Schiff told Fox Business. “A strong economy doesn’t produce inflation. It actually produces the reverse, because a strong economy means that your economy is productive, you’re producing more goods and services, and you’re growing the supply. We have shortages because we have a weak economy.”
Goldman Sachs — one of the largest investment banks and financial institutions in the world — proclaimed this week that inflation is a bigger threat to economic growth worldwide than the COVID-19 pandemic.
The biggest risk to the global economy may no longer be a renewed downturn because of fresh virus outbreaks, but may now be higher inflation because of tight goods supplies and excessive wage pressure. Although we expect a significant part of the goods supply squeeze to abate over the next year, at present the stress on supply chains is substantial and inventories in semiconductors, durable goods, and energy markets are very low. In such an environment, even a moderate production outage resulting from covid outbreaks in China, an energy demand spike related to a cold winter, or other short-term disruptions could have sizable economic effects.