White House pressed on soaring inflation, denies 'pivot' on economic policies is necessary
Jared Bernstein of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss the latest inflation data as Americans battle rising consumer prices across the board.
Republicans hammered President Biden for his failed prediction that inflation in the U.S. had hit its "peak" last December as the nation saw an uptick in the consumer price index (CPI).
Biden was on the receiving end of GOP criticism over his December 2021 prediction that inflation in America had peaked, with red party lawmakers blasting the president over his economic policies.
Inflation rose again on Thursday, climbing 0.4 percent in September and putting more financial pressure on already hard-hit Americans and their families.
INFLATION SURGED MORE THAN EXPECTED IN SEPTEMBER AS PRICES REMAIN STUBBORNLY HIGH
A CNN report said President Biden was doing worse than Jimmy Carter on inflation and that Americans were holding him responsible. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP)
In December, when inflation was still at 6.8%, Biden told reporters he believed that "it’s the peak of the crisis" and, "you’ll see it change sooner, quicker, more rapidly than people think."
"This is terrible news for seniors and working families," House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady said in a statement after the numbers were announced. "Nearly a year after President Biden promised Americans inflation had peaked, core inflation is now the highest on record in his presidency."
"Health care costs rose nearly 30 percent in the last year, the largest increase on record. Rent prices saw the largest hike ever recorded as well, " Brady continued. "Joe Biden’s cruel economy is just getting worse."
"There’s no question President Biden’s so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ has failed American workers," he added.
Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton tweeted that one year ago, Biden "was promising the American people that inflation had peaked" and that the president will "do it again."
"Biden's word is worthless," Cotton added.
House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York tweeted that "#Bidenflation was not ‘temporary’ and has not ‘peaked.’"
"It has surged because of Joe Biden [and] House Dems' Inflation Expansion Act," Stefanik wrote. "When Republicans earn back the House, we have a plan to rein in America's inflation crisis. Biden [and] Pelosi have NO plan."
In response to the criticism, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates attacked congressional Republicans as making "inflation more painful" on Americans with their policies toward entitlements while simultaneously boosting the profits of "Big Pharma" and giving the "ultra-wealthy" a "new tax giveaway."
"Instead of working with President Biden and Democrats in Congress to help Medicare cut prescription drug costs – which the vast majority of even conservative Americans support – congressional Republicans are trying to force families to pay more for medications and health care so that Big Pharma can pad their profits and the ultra-wealthy can gain a new tax giveaway," Bates said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"On top of that, they are working to put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block," Bates continued. "Whereas the President and congressional Democrats are standing against the global problem of inflation, working overtime to slash costs for middle class families, our Republican counterparts are in overdrive to sell those families out and make inflation more painful."
The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods including gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.4% in September from the previous month. Prices climbed 8.2% on an annual basis.
Those figures were both higher than the 8.1% headline figure and 0.2% monthly increase forecast by Refinitiv economists, a worrisome sign for the Federal Reserve as it seeks to cool price gains and tame consumer demand with an aggressive interest rate hike campaign.
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In an even more concerning development that suggests underlying inflationary pressures in the economy remain strong, core prices – which strip out the more volatile measurements of food and energy – climbed 0.6% in September from the previous month. From the same time last year, core prices jumped 6.6%, the fastest since 1982.
Economists anticipated that core prices would climb 0.5% on a monthly basis and 6.5% from the previous year.
Fox News Digital’s Megan Henney contributed reporting.
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