White House economic adviser Brian Deese pushes spending as inflation fix

President Biden's chief economic advisor, Brian Deese, continued to push for trillions more in government spending Wednesday as the nation struggles with soaring inflation.

Deese, director of the National Economic Council, was questioned multiple times during a White House press briefing on what the administration would do to tackle inflation after the consumer price index, at 7%, showed December saw the greatest year-over-year boost in nearly 40 years. 

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While he acknowledged that there are "price increases that we need to tackle," Deese credited the $2 trillion Biden-backed American Rescue Plan passed last year with reducing hunger and child poverty in the nation and went on to plug the additional multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better social spending and climate plan now being pushed by the White House.

"We're going to keep focused on those ways that we can address the typical pocketbook issues that the American people face, and this is one of the issues why the core economic logic behind the Build Back Better plan is important," Deese said.  

"Because for working Americans who are benefiting from a strong labor market and more job opportunities but also struggling with costs – not only of food, but also costs of child care or the cost of health care – the components of the Build Back Better plan would directly address these issues."

When pressed whether there was anything immediate the administration planned to do to address rising costs of food, Deese said what it had already done was "historic" but noted that there are supply chain issues the White House planned to address.

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Deese emphasized that the inflation seen in 2021 has been a "global phenomenon" due to the pandemic.

This is not the first time Deese has pushed for the pricey Build Back Better plan, which has stalled in Congress, as a way to combat soaring inflation.

The chief economic advisor to Biden told ABC in November, "By providing affordable child care, affordable elder care, we’re going to help get those people back into the workforce, which will reduce price pressures while also reducing the practical costs that Americans face."

"That’s the case we’re going to make and that’s the case why delivering right now for the American people is the right thing to do," Deese added, pushing for Congress to pass the plan.

Following the CPI report on Wednesday, conservative Heritage Foundation research fellow Joel Griffith lambasted the Biden administration's economic agenda, writing, "Lower-income families and working Americans are being especially hard-hit by skyrocketing prices because they spend a greater proportion of their income on things like energy and used vehicles, which are rising faster than the overall rate."

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Griffith noted, "The Biden administration proposes to permanently expand government spending through the Build Back Better Act on top of trillions in new spending in recent months.

"The White House has been asleep at the wheel, and Americans will continue to pay for the Biden administration’s reckless disregard for their well-being until there is change," the analyst continued. "This inflation is not going away, the administration’s claims to the contrary notwithstanding. They have been wrong about almost every economic forecast so far — this time will be no different."