Brian Deese, President Biden’s top economic advisor was put in the hot seat by Fox News journalist Martha MacCallum with her deep cut to the chase style of questioning. Deese was seen dodging a definitive answer when asked about a specific timeline about how and when will the skyrocketed, decades-high inflation rate be coming down, he chose the diplomatic way out of it without presenting anything precise but only broad and situational.
To much of his bleak defense, he partly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Ukrainian land for being responsible for this energy crisis that has eventually led to the Federal Reserve ordering the largest interest rate hike since 1994 to tamp down inflation that surged to 8.6% in May, which in turn has caused a general upset amongst the people of America as it has been having a significant financial impact on their daily lives.
Brian Deese on inflation -“We’re in the building process”
“Give us a timeframe. We’re at 8.6% in inflation right now. When do you expect to see inflation in the 2% range, based on everything you are doing in your plan? When will that happen?” MacCallum asked in the Wednesday segment.
Deese replied by saying that there are a lot of expert predictions available about inflation returning to an acceptable 2% in the Fed’s books, but constantly avoided putting his own set of thoughts in there and trying to give a definitive reply. Also stated that the people in the office are doing everything in their power to make progress on the two goals they are looking toward, which are lowering the costs that families are facing right now and lowering the federal deficit.
In response, MacCallum again pressed for an exact time frame, this time asking whether he thought it would happen in the fall, in 2023, or 2024.
“What I would say is we’re focused on the policies that will actually accelerate that process,” Deese responded by pointing to Putin’s “brutal war in Ukraine” has a major effect on oil prices. He asserted that the administration will soon reduce inflation much quicker if it implements its goals, which again didn’t seem to satisfy the news anchor one bit.
Pressing for a numerical estimate
Even though Brian Deese was continuously dodging a definitive estimate and generalizing his answers as much as possible MacCallum was constantly pressing him again. “What is quickly, can you define quickly? – Give me just a ballpark [estimate],” she said. She wanted something concrete, some numbers, some estimations from Deese’s side which he refused to give.
Deese replied the White House is in the “building business” rather than the “predicting business.” “We’re in the business of trying to put policies in place that will actually accelerate that outcome,” Deese said. Denying to give any specific estimations seemingly made Martha more inquisitive and direct in her questioning.
She quickly jumped onto another line of questions, she interrogated Deese by saying all he and his team talk about is the stable and steady growth, the positive economic policies that will drive down everyday costs, the strong base of recovery that the U.S. economy has and yet we’ve got 8.6% inflation rate and negative growth in the last GDP figures and the projection for this quarter is a meager 0.9%. At last, even offering a form of the solution by asking “Why not just lower corporate taxes to encourage companies to come to America and to open here?”
Deese quickly came to the cover of the current President of the United States of America Joe Biden emphasizing that he with the implementation of his economic policies has successfully lowered the federal deficit which very well compliments the Federal Reserve’s last attempt to slow the inflation down a bit.
Further, post these comments by Biden’s top economic advisor, MacCallum very blatantly pointed out that the deficit likely took a dive due to the fact that the economy was shuttered during the pandemic with all the disruption and stillness it caused, and therefore it should mathematically drop as and when typical commerce resumed like before.
The aftermath of inflation
In advance of the 2022 midterm elections, which very well could put the Democratic Party’s hold on Congress in jeopardy, Biden has stated that the struggle against inflation is his top domestic priority. With all of the inflation taking root and rising to its highest level since 1981 in recent months, the president’s popularity has been progressively declining.
Critics claim that Biden’s economic initiatives, such as a regulatory assault on domestic oil refiners, are really to blame for the gloomy economic picture, with far too many economists now inkling toward a prediction of recession by the end of the year 2022. All of this negative buzz around the falling economy of the largest economy in the world still remains a big question mark that President Biden needs to answer.
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