(Video: Fox News)
Top White House economic advisor Gene Sperling wailed and stammered in exasperation as Fox News hosts Sandra Smith and John Roberts grilled him over the Biden administration’s lack of any concrete plan to curb rising inflation and gas prices.
Speaking on “America Reports” this Tuesday, advisor Gene Sperling was specifically asked why, if President Joe Biden is as concerned about rising inflation as he claims, Americans keep seeing higher inflation and higher gas pieces.
Sperling replied by implying that inflation is a global problem that can’t be stopped singlehandedly by just one country.
“You know the answer to that — you know this is global. You read the papers today. You know that the euro just said inflation was 8.1 percent. You read the papers last week that the UK was at 9 percent,” he said in exasperation.
While this is true, he neglected to mention that American inflation has and continues to track noticeably higher than European inflation.
U.S. inflation remains *much* higher than euro area inflation. This is the 12-month change in core HICP, a somewhat comparable measure for the two economies.
The US has consistently been ~4pp higher than Europe. That is a HUGE difference. pic.twitter.com/pboWfRluRR
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) April 12, 2022
“So there’s nothing we as a country can do to bring prices down?” Smith asked in response to Sterling’s non-point point about global inflation.
“I’ve explicitly said the opposite. What did I say? That one, we put in a strong Federal Reserve, and you respect their independence and their need to take tough measures to bring down inflation,” Sterling replied, visibly annoyed.
FYI, the current Federal Reserve has faced massive criticism for NOT taking “tough measures to bring down inflation.”
Multiple critics have said the administration needs to drastically raise interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has chosen to raise them slowly instead.
50 basis points is almost as ridiculous as 25. The official #inflation rate is 7% and the real rate is more like 15%. Worse, the trend is up, so inflation in 2022 will be even higher than 2021. The #Fed needs to raise rates today, and by a lot more than a measly 50 basis points!
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 17, 2022
Smith responded by asking for a simple forecast on when, if ever, Americans will begin to see reduced prices.
This further angered Sterling, who replied, “What you’re doing right now is trying to put me in the position of being a forecaster.”
Smith noted in response that, technically speaking, “economists forecast.”
Ignoring Smith’s point, Sterling then drew attention to a widely panned op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that President Biden wrote.
“All of these things [mentioned in the op-ed] suggest that we’re in a strong position to make a transition to more balanced economic growth, even with the federal reserve having to take tough action,” Sterling said, echoing the president’s dubious claims.
Published Monday, the piece claimed America “is in a better economic position than almost any other country” because of a few cherry-picked economic indicators.
The piece has been mocked and ridiculed because of the president’s core thesis, which is that to fight inflation, he needs to spend more money, increase taxes, and let the Federal Reserve continue to independently make decisions.
Biden releases his ‘top secret plan to fight inflation’ — hoping nobody remembers that he has argued that every policy he’s pushed, from the American Rescue Plan to Build Back Better — would fight inflation.
So there’s not a lot of credibility there. https://t.co/jrTtXehegG pic.twitter.com/BCIPb0lDA0
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) May 31, 2022
Smith responded to Sterling’s diatribe by repeating her question.
“It’s a simple question. The president has people advising him. You are a senior advisor to the president. And we’re just simply asking what can you tell the American people where prices will be a few months from now. What is your ability to control those prices and bring them down?” she said.
Sterling replied by listing some of the useless actions the Biden administration has taken, such as releasing oil from the already grossly depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Roberts responded by noting, “But it’s not bringing down prices, Gene. You can release as much oil as you want, it’s not bringing down prices.”
Sterling ignored Roberts’ point and again drew attention to the president’s widely panned op-ed, saying, “The president just today in The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed going through his approach about giving independence to the fed, giving them room to make tough choices with the strongest monetary tools.”
“Well, does he worry that the Fed’s gotten this wrong? The Fed’s gotten this all wrong. The Fed got inflation wrong. They thought it was transitory,” Smith replied, cutting him off.
So did the Biden administration, which has been blaming inflation on everything but its own widely criticized policies:
“I’ll take responsibility instead of blaming others.”
— Joe Biden, 2020 pic.twitter.com/PNG1F5EN85— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 31, 2022
The interview remained this tense and heated til the very end, with Sterling completely snapping at one point after being cut off by Smith.
“Here’s the deal: I just go through the plan, and you just pretend I didn’t say it, you just ignore it. You just ask the same questions. It’s your show, if that’s what you wanna do, but when I’m going through this and you just interrupt I don’t see how it’s helping your viewers,” he said.
Incidentally, critics feel the exact same way about this administration and the inflation they’re doing nothing about …
- DOJ agrees not to publicly out FBI agents involved in Jan. 6 cases - February 8, 2025
- ICE arrests 11K illegal aliens in 18 days – NBC News says Trump ‘angry,’ wants more - February 8, 2025
- Judge blocks DOGE access to Treasury data after NY AG Letitia James leads blue states in lawsuit - February 8, 2025
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