![Former Dem. South Carolina Rep. Bakari Sellers talks inflation while on CNN [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Screen-Shot-2022-02-11-at-11.45.08-AM-e1644597987859.png "Former Dem. South Carolina Rep. Bakari Sellers talks inflation while on CNN [Screenshot CNN]")
Former Democratic South Carolina representative and CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers said Friday that President Joe Biden must fix inflation.
CNN host John Berman asked Sellers about the pain of inflation that millions of Americans are feeling, playing a clip from an interview between NBC host Lester Holt and Biden. “I think it was back in July you said inflation was going to be temporary,” Holt said to Biden. “I think a lot of Americans are wondering what your definition of temporary is.”
“You are being a wise guy with me a little bit. I understand,” Biden said. “That’s your job.”
The president said he has spoken to several leaders and Nobel laureates who informed him inflation would soon taper off, but that he’d still work to deal with the “big points that are impacting most people in their homes.”
Sellers criticized Biden’s response as “terrible” and that Americans who are feeling the effects of inflation don’t really care about what Nobel laureates have to say.
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“Yeah, it was a terrible answer. And I would tell them that if they were looking me in the face. The fact is that nobody that Scott and I are talking about want to hear what Nobel laureates actually say about the problem. In fact, in that answer, we would care more about the solutions, or maybe if there are no – look, inflation ain’t caused by Joe Biden,” he argued.
“We know why we have inflation. Inflation is because we were home for a year. Inflation is because we went through this Covid period,” Sellers argued. “But the problem is yours to fix now. So, we’d rather get solutions, or simply ‘I feel your pain,’ which is a better answer than whatever economists from Wharton decided to tell whoever.”
Former special assistant to former President George W. Bush Scott Jennings agreed with Sellers, noting the administration is running out of answers. (RELATED: MSNBC Host Chris Jansing Presses Biden Economic Adviser After Inflation Hits Almost 40-Year High)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing the consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.6% in January, bringing the inflation indicator’s year-over-year increase to 7.5%.
The CPI is at a near four-decade high throughout January, growing 7.5% on a year-over-year basis, the BLS reported. Food prices have risen 7.0% on a year-over-year basis while energy prices have jumped 7.5%, according to the data.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has attributed high inflation to things like the supply chain issue and shortages of supplies and workers as the economy ramped up following nationwide lockdowns, according to The Associated Press (AP). Businesses that had shut down during the pandemic or cut hours were forced to scramble to meet high demands in recent months as the vaccine rollout ramped up and things began reopening full time, the AP reported. As demand increased and supply became tight, prices began to rise, with companies shifting the higher costs to consumers, according to the report.
Former Treasury Sec. Lawrence Summers blamed Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and the $1,400 checks to households for unnecessarily interfering in a rebounding economy, the AP reported.