Americans are feeling the pain at the pump and at the grocery store. Inflation is at a 40-year record high. Yet, President Joe Biden and his administration say that the economy is better than ever. This week, Distinguished Visiting Fellow Stephen Moore explains the truth about Joe Biden’s economy.
www.heritage.org
Michelle Cordero: From The Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero and this is Heritage Explains.
Cordero: Inflation rates hit a 40 year high last week, coming in at 9.1%. The cost of everyday staples also increased. The price of eggs went up 33.1%, meat 8.2%, gasoline 59.9%, used cars 7.1% and air travel 34.1%. This is all in addition to supply shortages. Yet as the economy is flashing huge red warning signs, President Joe Biden and his administration are telling us something different.
Joe Biden: Look, here's where we are. We have the fastest growing economy in the world, the world, the world. We have 8.6 million new jobs just since I got in an office. Unemployment rates down to 3.6%. We've reduced the deficit last year by $320 billion, this year going to reduce it by $1.7 trillion dollars, trillion dollars.
Clip: When you look at inflation, when we look at where we are economically, and we are in a strong, we are stronger economically than we have been in history. When you look at the unemployment numbers at 3.6%, when you look at the jobs numbers, more than 8.7 million of new jobs created, that is important. But we understand that gas prices are high and we understand that food costs are high. And that is because of a once in a generation pandemic and also Putin's war. And that's just the facts.
Cordero: So what's the truth? Are we growing faster and stronger than ever, or is our economy in a downward spiral? Today Stephen Moore, a distinguished fellow in economics at Heritage, will explain. Our conversation after this short break.
Cordero: Steve Moore, thank you so much for joining us.
Stephen Moore: Hi, Michelle. Great to be with you.
Cordero: Okay. So we know what we're seeing at the pump and at the grocery store, we're feeling the pain. So why is the Biden administration saying the economy has never been better? What are they looking at?
Moore: Well, I think first of all, this really suggests that the people in the White House are just out of touch with what's going on in real America. We've always talked about Washington being a bubble, where politicians of both side of the aisle are just not in touch with what's happening in main street America. And this is a really a picture perfect example of that, where it's laughable and it's actually insulting for the Biden administration to tell people who are seeing their incomes being ravaged by the highest inflation rate in 40 years.
Moore: You see there was a study that came out recently that a lot of families are really having to cut back and even the essentials that they buy because their incomes are falling relative to the price of everything from gasoline to buying milk and all the other things that people have to buy, rent.
Moore: And so it's not a good economy. 82% of Americans, according to New York Times poll, and they're hardly on the right, Americans say the country's headed in the wrong direction. And it is. It is headed in the wrong direction. We've got the high gas prices. We have a situation now where I believe we're in a, what I call a soft recession, where the last two quarters have been negative, now only a little bit negative, but still that's officially in a recession.
Moore: And the real question now, I think going forward, Michelle, is whether we're going to have a crash landing here. Whether we're going to be able to glide out of this and we can talk about that, but I'm worried.
Cordero: So another thing we've heard from Joe Biden is that Americans have record savings. Where's he getting that? Is that true?
Moore: Yeah. I'm working on a paper right now, that's why I was laughing. About the things, the multiple things that Biden has said about the economy that are not true. And that's one of the ones I don't even understand.
