Billionaire Bezos and Biden spar over inflation
American Action Forum president Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Global Situation Room president Johanna Maska react to Biden and Bezos sparring over inflation on ‘Your World.’
Billionaire Jeff Bezos mocked the White House's response to his criticism of President Biden's inflation plan on Monday, saying the administration wants to "muddy the topic" because they know "inflation hurts the neediest the most."
"Look, a squirrel!" Bezos tweeted. "This is the White House’s statement about my recent tweets. They understandably want to muddy the topic. They know inflation hurts the neediest the most. But unions aren’t causing inflation and neither are wealthy people.
"Remember the Administration tried … their best to add another $3.5 TRILLION to federal spending. They failed, but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today, and inflation today is at a 40 year high," Bezos added.
(Screenshot/Twitter/JeffBezos)
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New York Times podcast host Kara Swisher responded to Bezos' thread, asking, "What is in mogul drinking water these days?" in an apparent reference to Elon Musk's Twitter activity.
Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Bezos was "killing the planet" in an expletive-ridden rant.
"You aren't a ‘wealthy person’ you have hoarded and enclosed literally astronomical sums on the backs of the people and the groaning Earth, least you can do is pay taxes and let the workers breathe," Kalmus continued.
Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator, criticized Bezos as well.
"Amazon just secured a $10 billion federal contract—money straight from taxpayers—and @JeffBezos *still* has the nerve to tweet this," she wrote. "With the union busting Amazon is partaking in, they shouldn’t have gotten the contract to begin with."
FILE - In this March 4, 2018 file photo, Jeff Bezos and wife MacKenzie Bezos arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Bezos says he and his wife, MacKenzie, have decided to divorce after 25 years of marriage. Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
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Andy Frye, a sports contributor for Forbes, took aim at the "look, a squirrel" portion of Bezos' comment.
"Look, a fake astronaut in a cowboy hat!" He said that Bezos wasn't "pulling it off as an astronaut, a cowboy, or a labor economist either."
Larry Summers, former Director of the National Economic Council said Sunday that Bezos was "mostly wrong" about his attacks on the administration.
"It is perfectly reasonable to believe, as I do and @POTUS asserts, that we should raise taxes to reduce demand to contain inflation and that the increases should be as progressive as possible," Summers tweeted.
Others agreed with Bezos and suggested the White House shouldn't debate economics with the billionaire.
(Twitter/Screenshot/CarlosCurbelo)
Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman and NBC analyst, responded to Bezos' tweet and said that it was "not a good idea for the White House to get into an economic debate with" him.
"I love Jeff Bezos going to war with the Biden White House over their inflation idiocy. This is well said," Outkick founder Clay Travis said.
Martin Pelletier, a market strategist and columnist for the Financial Post, said that the billionaire Amazon founder was "bang on."
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The White House's response to Bezo's original comments said:
"It doesn't require a huge leap to figure out why one of the wealthiest individuals on Earth opposes an economic agenda for the middle class that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights inflation for the long haul, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the President is achieving by asking the richest taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share. It's also unsurprising that this tweet comes after the President met with labor organizers, including Amazon employees."
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the debt ceiling during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, Oct. 4 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
On Friday, Bezos called on President Biden's new Disinformation Board to review the president's tweet about inflation.
Biden said in order to bring down inflation, wealthy corporations need to "pay their share."
"The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection," Bezos tweeted in response to Biden.