WATCH: Biden Chief Economist Tells CNBC Anchor Prices ‘Absolutely Are an Issue’
In a new CNBC interview, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese conceded that price increases due to inflation “absolutely are an issue” right now
On Friday morning’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, co-anchor Joe Kernen hosted Deese for an interview on a range of topics that included the price inflation that has roiled President Joe Biden’s economic message for months.
Kernen pressed Deese about Sen. Joe Manchin’s consistent concerns over inflation with regard to the Build Back Better bill, asking “Don’t you think he can say, and don’t you think the people of West Virginia would say what he has been warning about has been validated? Why keep trying to just ram this through when he obviously is probably not going to go for it, and looks like he’s been vindicated and validated?”
Kernen then loaded the question a little by asking if Biden is getting bad advice, and adding “Do you advise the president on these things, Brian?”
“I do, and I have never worked for Goldman, but I appreciate the context,” Deese said, correcting Kernen’s earlier reference to “One of your former colleagues at Goldman.”
Deese said that “Senator Manchin is a close partner,” and that “of course, I’m advising the president on this set of issues.”
“And what we’re advising him, and what the president thinks, is that the price increases right now are absolutely an issue, absolutely an issue,” Deese conceded. “They’re affecting families where they are, but they’re also affecting sentiment and the outlook, which is why our focus is on what we can do concretely to bring down those costs in the context of, the Federal Reserve is moving and operating independently.”
He cited Biden’s recent nominations to the Federal Reserve, and then explained that part of the solution would be to pass Build Back Better.
“What you and many others have talked about for years is, we need to be more pro-growth. We need to get growth going and we need to expand our economy’s capacity to make goods, deliver services. The investments in the Build Back Better plan, if they’re fully offset, will do exactly that,” Deese said.
Watch above via CNBC.
