Tipsheet

WH Chief Economist Can't Bring Herself to Say Democrats' Bill Will Reduce Inflation

White House Chief Economist Cecilia Rouse was pressed on CNN about how the much-touted "Inflation Reduction Act" does not reduce inflation for the next few years and she had no answer as to why Democrats named the bill as if it did.

Biden is set to sign the "Inflation Reduction Act" after coming back from vacation before he leaves the White House again to Delaware.

"The Congressional Budget Office — you know this, but to remind viewers — the Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan kind of scoring organization for legislation, says that the bill would have negligible impact on inflation this year and next. Are you personally comfortable as an economist calling it the Inflation Reduction Act?" anchor Kate Bolduan asked.

"So this bill represents really important investments we know we need to make that help to expand our economic capacity. Inflation happens when we have too much demand for the supply, and we know we need to be investing in the supply supports so that we are better able as a country to address issues like inflation going forward," Rouse replied.

"But if you passed a bill called the Fill Every Pothole Act, I mean, voters would expect you to fill every pothole. I mean, so should voters measure the success of this bill on how much you reduce inflation in the next couple of years?" Bolduan followed up.

"So this bill spins out over several years and so the tax provisions, for example, some of the tax revenue will happen immediately, some of the benefits in terms of deficit reduction will materialize over time. So, again, this is really an investment in our economy," said Rouse, claiming the bill's impact will occur in the future.

Bolduan ended the interviewing by noting Democrats could have named this bill a number of other things that would have not been misleading.