The majority of Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
Between sky-high inflation, rising interest rates, and major job losses, the U.S. economy is on the brink of collapse.
But this member of the Biden administration just made the most ludicrous statement on national television.
National Economic Council Director says the economy is doing “exceptionally well”
White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard appeared on CNBC’s popular program Squawk Box to discuss the current state of the economy.
In response to negative poll numbers, Brainard said that “the economy is performing exceptionally well.”
“People have been through a very challenging few years between the pandemic, and then the oil price spikes associated with Russia’s war,” she continued. “It’s going to take a while for them to feel really confident.”
She then said that most people “feel like their personal finances are better now than they were before.”
Co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Brainard to speak to “a lot of folks waking up to the headlines of poll results over the weekend, as it relates to Bidenomics versus, frankly, Trumponomics and where he stands – the President that is – compared to where…the former President stands in terms of how people are thinking about the economy and how, frankly, unhappy they remain about the economy.”
She responded by saying that if she looks “around the world,” then she doesn’t think “there’s a leader out there who wouldn’t rather have the economic record that President Biden has today. We have been growing 3% over the past year. We’ve had unemployment down below 4% for 21 months in a row.”
Brainard said that “real incomes are growing” and that “wealth is up 37% for the median household since before the pandemic,” which she called “remarkable.”
“And we’re growing faster and have lower inflation than any other advanced economy in the world. So, the statistics, I think, are very strong,” she continued.
The White House official also stated that “if you look at surveys, 70% of Americans feel like their personal finances are better now than they were before. We’ve still got to work on kitchen table economics, there are still a lot of Americans sitting around their kitchen tables with costs of medicine, pharmaceuticals that are still too high, and we’re working on that.”
Talk show host pushes back
CNBC’s Sorkin pushed back on the statements made by Brainard and asked what the administration will do about the way Americans feel based on recent polling data.
“Sometimes people say, well, it’s a messaging issue, and look at the numbers, and I even made the point in the last hour, that, on a relative basis, those numbers look quite good. But on a day-to-day basis, clearly, those who are participating in these polls – and I don’t know if you believe these poll results – clearly feel something very different,” he said.
Brainard said she thinks “we have 3% growth over the last year and inflation is down by 60%. A year ago, a consensus of forecasters said that to get inflation where it is today, down to where it is today, you’d need to see 4.5% unemployment and no growth over the last year.”
She said her “sense” is that “Americans really like the President’s policies.”
Of course, if you were to ask the average American on the street how they feel about Joe Biden’s economy, there’s a very good chance that the answer will be quite different.
