CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan grilled Brian Deese, who is the director of the National Economic Council under President Joe Biden, about how the administration has been misleading the country about the reasons why inflation is on the rise.
While the war in Ukraine has contributed to the increase in cost of certain goods, inflation was rising long before February and was exacerbated by Biden's "American Rescue Plan" that was signed into law shortly after he entered office.
"I want to put up a chart of inflation for our audience to see, measured by the Consumer Price Indexes. The tick up began before the war began. A number of economists said that the tremendous fiscal spending, the $6 trillion, and the $2 trillion that the Biden Administration pushed through in the spring of 2021," Brennan explained.
"When people look at that and they say, 'Well, the White House told us that inflation would be transitory. And they were could go through with this kind of spending and we would be fine.' Even when people in your own party warned it would be detrimental. How do you win credibility with the public and say this time we’re not wrong?" she pressed.
"You have to look around the world to see that the two principle drivers are the pandemic and Putin. In the U.K., inflation has hit 9 percent..." Deese replied.
"But the point is those are the things you can’t control. I’m talking about the things you can. So how do you win the credibility back?" Brennan interjected.
"We win credibility by taking action. This President is acting. This President galvanized the global community to do historic release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a million barrels a day. That action was single handedly responsible for keeping oil prices from going up even further," Deese said. "We’re going to take action and make clear that tackling inflation is our top priority."