Puzder torches Biden over ‘disconnected’ budget

Former CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder argued on Tuesday that President Biden is "disconnected from reality economically."

Speaking with "Mornings with Maria" on Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation visiting fellow also argued that the "president’s budget doesn’t address the inflation problem."

It was revealed earlier this month that inflation hit a fresh 40-year high in February, largely driven by higher gas prices. 

The consumer price index climbed 7.9% on an annual basis, according to data released earlier this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Month over month, inflation rose 0.8%.

From January to February, nearly every category of goods and services got pricier. Gas jumped 6.6% and accounted for almost a third of price hikes. Grocery costs jumped 1.4%, the sharpest one-month increase since 1990, other than during a pandemic-induced price surge two years ago. The cost of fruits and vegetables rose 2.3%, the largest monthly increase since 2010.

Puzder made the comments one day after President Biden released his $5.8 trillion budget proposal for 2023.

Puzder argued that the president needs to "address inflation by increasing the supply of goods or decreasing the demand for goods and his budget doesn’t even attempt to do either of those things."

"So it’s very difficult to see how he can implement policies that would actually affect the inflation rate and that is unfortunate because politically he is not doing what he needs to do in the best interests of American workers," Puzder continued. 

The White House said the FY 2023 budget ensures that "corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share," while maintaining the president’s "promise" that no individual earning less than $400,000 will pay "an additional penny in new taxes."

BIDEN PITCHES LARGEST TAX HIKE IN HISTORY AS PART OF $5.8T BUDGET REQUEST

The budget, which the White House said would help to reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years, also delivers on Biden’s agenda.

The president, in the budget, proposed a new minimum tax on millionaires and billionaires "who so often pay indefensibly low tax rates."

The tax would ensure that those individuals pay "at least 20% of their total income in federal income taxes."

"The minimum tax would apply only to the wealthiest 0.01% of households – those with more than $100 million – and over half the revenue would come from billionaires alone," the White House said.

Puzder argued that "when inflation goes up and wage growth does not keep up with inflation, the people that pay that tax are working class Americans and middle class Americans and they’re getting hit at the pump, they’re getting hit at the grocery store, they’re getting hit trying to heat their homes in the winter and they’ll be hit trying to air-condition them in the summer."

For most Americans, inflation is running far ahead of the pay raises that many have received in the past year, making it harder for them to afford necessities like food, gas and rent.

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The February inflation data was taken before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which pushed prices at the pump to $4.24 as of Tuesday, 87 cents lower that the record high of $4.33 reached on March 11, according to AAA. 

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment. 

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Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.