Inflation is the issue on the American people's minds, which is a terrible and very bad thing for President Joe Biden, his administration, and the Democratic Party as a whole. Polls consistently show this to be the case. The president's approval rating continues to go down, indicating that the administration truly does not get the memo.
Biden's approval rating, according to RealClearPolitics (RCP), stands at 39.7 percent, while his approval rating on his handling of the economy is even worse, at 33.6 percent.
This comes despite how White House Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appeared on the Sunday shows. Deese even made multiple appearances, including on "Fox News Sunday" and CBS News' "Face the Nation," while Sec. Yellen showed up on ABC News' "This Week."
As has been the case for most of Deese's media appearances, his Sunday show appearances proved to be a train wreck. Earlier on Monday, Julio highlighted his performance on "Face the Nation," during which even host Margaret Brennan was not buying Deese's excuses.
To give credit where it's due, Brennan early on pointed out that while joblessness is low--a talking point the administration continuously touts--"wage growth [is] not keeping pace with inflation."
As part of his response to that first question, about what he would say to "Americans who are thinking that they might need a second job to pay their bills," Deese stuck to a popular line from this administration, which is to claim that inflation is worse elsewhere, despite economic data showing the United States has worse inflation compared to many other developed countries.
Further, as Fox News' Martha MacCallum told Deese last week, this isn't exactly something that's going to make the American people feel better.
A particularly telling moment, which has been a hallmark of Deese's media appearances, is that he didn't have an actual timeline on policies that can actually provide actual relief, despite talking about how they would work to control the things they can control as a way to gain back credibility on the issue.
"Well, if we look at the things that we can control, we win credibility," Deese before laughably claiming "this president is acting" when it comes to the job Biden is doing.
Brennan had asked multiple times times for a timeline when it comes to relief, leading to Deese bringing up a legislative package he claims will help by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, utility costs, and tax reform, which will supposedly help. Or so we're told. Brennan was finally able to coax out of Deese that he's "hopeful that we can move that as well before the August recess." Brennan herself didn't sound so sure, especially as she pointed to the failures of the Build Back Better agenda item.
Deese referred to the legislation as "the single most impactful thing that we could do right now."
Towards the end of the interview, Brennan called out President Biden for dragging his feet on making a decision about tariffs with China.
"One of the things that you do have control over at the executive is the approach on tariffs. Treasury Secretary Yellen told me back in November, she acknowledged that the Trump era China tariffs do add to inflation domestically here. President was asked about this yesterday and said, we are still in the process of making up my mind. If inflation is the number one priority. Why are you dragging out this decision," Brennan asked.
How did Deese respond? By pointing out that "I'll let the President's words speak for himself. We're looking closely at and I anticipate the president will have more to say on that issue in the coming weeks." In other words, it wasn't much of an answer.
In November Treasury Sec. Yellen told @margbrennan that the Trump-era tariffs on China do factor in America’s inflation problem today.
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 19, 2022
NEC Dir. Deese says the Biden administration may have a decision on what to do with those tariffs “in the coming weeks.” pic.twitter.com/iwJMj0IhvD
Deese didn't fare much better on "Fox News Sunday," when he spoke with guest host Shannon Bream and discussed oil and the exorbitant gas prices, which for that Sunday came with an average price tag of $4.983.
"If there are practical things we can do, we’re willing to listen and willing to be open," he claimed of the administration when it comes to working to lower prices.
Deese made such a claim despite how Biden signed an executive order his first day in office canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Sec. Yellen, during her appearance on ABC's "This Week," was similarly asked by host George Stephanopoulos about inflation, gas prices, and, perhaps most tellingly, about chances of there being a recession.
Like a good soldier, the secretary repeated the president's believe that a recession is not "inevitable," despite being confronted with numbers by a Wall Street Journal poll that morning, as I also covered, that shows we are at a 44 percent chance of experiencing a recession. The poll's write-up stressed this as being alarmingly high.
"Well, I expect the economy to slow, it's been growing at a very rapid rate as the economy -- as the labor market has recovered and we have reached full employment, it's natural now that we expect to transition to steady and stable growth. But I don't think recession is at all inevitable," Yellen casually offered.
Even when Stephanopoulos asked about it merely being "likely," the secretary still did not seem perturbed and even discounted the chances of a recession. She offered that "bank balances are high, it's clear that most consumers, even lower income households, continue to have buffer stocks of savings that will enable them to maintain spending so I don't see a drop off in consumer spending as a likely cause of the recession in the months ahead and the labor market is very strong, arguably the strongest of the post-war period."
Yellen touted unemployment numbers, but the poll warned unemployment may increase. "Economists expect unemployment to rise as the Fed raises rates, although they see it staying at relatively low levels by historical comparison," the write-up from Wall Street journal mentioned.
Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen tells @GStephanopoulos that a recession isn't “inevitable," but says inflation is "unacceptably high."
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 20, 2022
"I expect the economy to slow." https://t.co/EcSX5ZgH9k pic.twitter.com/ghuYNdzAGE
To close the segment, Yellen was also asked by host George Stephanopoulos about the tariffs, as Deese was. Her response was no more hopeful, as she offered "it's under consideration" and "I don't want to get ahead of where the policy process is."
