CNBC anchor Joe Kernen poured cold water on President Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” to economic adviser Jared Bernstein’s face during the “Squawk Box” on Tuesday morning.
The Biden administration has attempted to rally Americans around his economic policies by touting the decrease in inflation during the past year and the passages of sweeping pieces of legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act. Kernen cited polls expressing Americans’ grievances over the economy.
“I don’t want you to just shoot the messenger, I guess the [Wall Street] Journal and the New York Post are both Rupert Murdoch-owned entities,” Kernen began. “That’s probably the excuse that I always hear. Here’s the cover of the Washington Post, ‘Lie-Bor Day’ and it just talks about how the president constantly talks about cutting the deficit, when in fact it’s going to be $2 trillion, double last year. And the cuts that he did make are based on cutting from the pandemic level, so it’s kind of disingenuous.”
“All that taken together, it leaves a very sour case in most people’s mouths, Jared, and you talk about it all the time how people, if you ask them individually about certain things, they’re more optimistic,” Kernen continued. “But only one-third consistently of Americans think — buy into your contention that Bidenomics is working, so maybe you need to come on everyday, because it’s not working, your message.”
“I certainly don’t have the luxury of doing that, but let me talk about Bidenomics and people’s sentiment about it. I think the polls that you’re reflecting are often times very much 30 or 40,000 feet up. I’m not discounting them by the way, I know they’re real. But I want to talk about some polls that ask about the specific components of Bidenomics,” Bernstein said. (RELATED: CNBC’s Joe Kernen Blasts Economy, Student Loans To Biden Economic Adviser’s Face)
The adviser read a poll finding that 82% of respondents support capping insulin costs for senior citizens at $35 per month and 81% support lowering prescription drugs. Another 79% are in favor of providing a tax incentive to increase the number of manufacturing jobs.
He further touted the 800,000 manufacturing jobs that have been created since Biden took office.
“Now look, my point is that you can’t get 80% of Americas to agree on anything and here they are, line after line, agreeing about the importance of the components of Bidenomics. So, I think it’s an inaccurate narrative to declare that somehow Bidenomics isn’t working or that it’s not favorably received by people when you drill down into what it actually is,” Bernstein added.
A report from the Labor Department found the unemployment rate spiked to 3.8% and non-farm payrolls increased by 187,000 in August.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 54% of Americans disapprove of Biden and 40% approve as of Aug. 10. Sixty percent of respondents, including one in three Democrats, said they hold an unfavorable rating of Biden’s handling of inflation.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows a large increase in Americans taking part-time positions for extra money.