Fox News host Martha MacCallum confronted the director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, Wednesday about the continual rise of inflation.
Deese said the U.S. is in a better position than any other country to combat high prices and solve the issue of inflation, which hit a 40-year high Friday with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increasing 8.6%. He then said President Joe Biden laid out a blueprint to bring down inflation, such as his plan to sign the bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act Thursday to decrease costs for companies to ship their products.
“I’m not sure it makes Americans feel that much better that other countries are at a similar level, some of them are below the level that we’re at but be that as it may, David Asman was just here from Fox Business and he’s a long time observer of the U.S. economy…he said what you have to do when inflation is in this situation is increase supply. You need to increase manufacturing.”
She then said the American Petroleum Institute is calling on increased supply, less regulations and opportunities to receive more oil drilling leases.
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“Why not do that?” MacCallum pressed.
“Here’s what we’ve seen over the last 15 months,” Deese continued. “545,000 new manufacturing jobs created in America. That’s the fastest rate in 30 years. Companies investing and bringing production back to the United States, building more secure and resilient supply chains at rates that we haven’t seen in a very long time.” (RELATED: MSNBC Host Tells Biden Official That Americans See Right Through His ‘Putin Price Hike’ Spin)
“How come that’s not making a difference in inflation, Brian?” MacCallum interjected. “Because you talk about stable and steady growth and your team talks about the transition to stable and steady growth, yet we’ve got 8.6% inflation and you’ve got negative growth in the last GDP and the projection for this quarter is .09%. So when do you expect us to see a meaningful change in inflation or in growth? Give us a rough idea, how many months? How many years?”
Deese repeated that manufacturing is rising at record highs and prices have remained high because of the U.S.’ reliance on semiconductors in China and called on Congress to pass legislation to decrease dependence on foreign-made semiconductors.
“Why not just low corporate taxes to encourage companies to come to America and to open here? Would you consider lowering corporate taxes to simulate growth in America?” the host continued.
Deese said the most effective way to fight inflation is to lower the federal deficit and touted national debt lowering by $1.6 trillion. MacCallum said the deficit is “obviously down” because emergency pandemic restrictions were lifted off of the U.S. economy. He then argued that corporate taxes are already low and that the system needs to be reformed in order for companies to be able to freely move overseas.
“We need to have a more stable corporate tax system and incentives to invest here in the United States,” he said.
MacCallum then repeatedly asked when Americans can expect inflation to go down. He repeated that the deficit needs to be lowered.
“Let me ask you again because all planners have a scheme that they’re hoping to accomplish. So when you look at the charts and you’re looking at the plan you have which you just laid out for us, when do you expect to see inflation at 2%? Will it take 3 months? Will it take a year? Will it take 2 years? What are your projections telling you?”
“We’re focused on the policies that will actually accelerate that process,” he replied. “And we know there’s a lot of global uncertainty out there, we know that the price of oil and the price of gas at the pump are being affected by Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine. But we also know if we take the kinds of steps that we’re talking about, we will get to that process quickly.”
“What is quickly? Can you define ‘quickly?’ Give me just a ballpark,” she pressed.
He replied the administration is in the “building business” of implementing policies to “accelerate the outcome” of bringing down costs.