CNBC Host Grills Biden Adviser Bharat Ramamurti On Admin Heaping Regulations Onto One Another

CNBC’s Joe Kernen grilled President Joe Biden’s Deputy Director of National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti on Thursday over the administration’s use of regulations.

The House passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act on Wednesday night, raising the debt ceiling through January 2025. The legislation allows an unlimited amount of spending through its expiration while also cutting back on regulations. The deal would require the Secretary of the Army to authorize all permits related to the West Virginia pipeline within 21 days and shield the project from legal challenges which have stalled it.

Kernen and Ramamurti were discussing the new debt ceiling agreement, with Kernen questioning whether expanding the government and raising taxes is the best way to spur economic growth. Ramamurti argued Biden has spurred economic growth since coming into office before Kernen turned his attention toward regulations. (RELATED: Rand Paul Scorches ‘Biden-McCarthy’ Debt Plan)

“We’ve had people make the case that in terms of regulations that if you were long regulations, you’re doing pretty well, do you think that’s the way to engender more economic growth, layering regulation after regulation on the economy?” Kernen asked.

“I think it’s a case-by-case thing,” Ramamurti said. “The president has made clear that, when regulations get in the way of growth and aren’t protecting something important, he’ll get rid of them. Classic example of that is that the president got rid of regulations that require hearing aids to be sold only after prescription. Now hearing aids are available over the counter in CVS and Best Buys across the country. The cost of a hearing aid has gone down dramatically. New companies are entering that market and innovating in that space.”

“That’s the kind of deregulatory step the president is comfortable taking,” he continued. “If we’re talking about deregulating in a way that threatens the air and the water that we drink, then, no, the president is not particularly interested in that and it’s not clear that that would be helpful for the American economy.”

The debt bill also includes an updated version of Republican Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves’ Builder Act, which originally allowed energy projects’ sponsors to conduct their own environmental reviews. The updated version allows project sponsors to prepare the assessments so long as they have tea approval and supervision of the relevant federal agencies.