On 7/18/2022, during White House Press Conference, White House chief economist Jared Bernstein got flamed in the press briefing room for blaming Putin for high gas prices while simultaneously giving Biden credit for when gas prices dip. “Aren’t you having it both ways, Jared? Because when the gas prices go up, it’s got nothing to do with the president. When we see some decline, you want him to get the credit,” Newsmax reporter James Rosen said. “Uh, uh, uh look, I think that there’s no both way thinking here at all,” Bernstein said as he nervously swayed back and forth. Rosen pushed back on Bernstein. “So when they rose, it was Putin’s fault. When they’re coming down, he [Biden] gets the credit,” Rosen said. “Yeah, I very much disagree with that framing, I think what’s happening here is a president who is working tirelessly to address … the budgetary impacts of these elevated prices. And we’re showing you here today some real results, partially — that partially derived from concrete efforts he’s taken,” Bernstein said glancing down at his notes as he struggled to defend Joe Biden.
Bernstein also claimed they were “careful” when wrongly claiming inflation was “transitory,” during the White House press briefing. Reporter asked, “I’m sure we all remember, a year ago, other colleagues of yours stood here and said inflation was transitory and was not going to last, and it was certainly not going to go up to where we are now. Do you think it’s possible in a couple of months you might regret standing here and saying we’re not about to be in a recession?”
MR. BERNSTEIN: Well, I want to be very clear what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that based on — based on consumer spending, based on payroll employment, based on where the unemployment rate is, I think we can confidently say that these numbers that we’re posting are very much inconsistent with a recessionary call, given where we are right now. I think that is the most accurate way to assess the answer to that question. When it comes to transitory, I think the answer there is that we were careful, when we were talking about that, to consistently reference the forecasts that were out there, the view on inflation’s trajectory by not only pretty much every forecaster we could find, but of course, the Federal Reserve as well.
Reporter: Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of President Biden insisting that high prices and inflation, in the President’s words, were “expected to be temporary.” A lot of my colleagues have asked similar questions, but I’m wondering how much faith can the American public put in future White House assessments about the economy, about inflation after they saw that inflation number increase month after month, and before the Russian … ?
MR. BERNSTEIN: … I tried to answer as fulsomely as I could, some of that — part of that question earlier. But let me ask you to focus on what we’re trying to talk about today, which is something that is happening in the here and now … We’re talking about what has happened in the past 34 days to prices at the pump. They’ve fallen 50 cents, and you heard me go through some of the numbers in terms of the relief for American drivers. At the same time, we are not stopping there. Okay? This is nothing close to a victory lap, because we have much more to do to achieve the President’s agenda of helping families get some breathing room in this tough environment, which is characterized by, of course, such highly elevated prices.
Reporter: Following up on Jeff’s question about transitory inflation, I’m curious what made the White House realize that the phrase was inaccurate and also politically problematic.
MR. BERNSTEIN: I think it has to do with the — I’m going to use an economics word — the periodicity, which is —
Reporter: The what? (Laughter.)
MR. BERNSTEIN: I’m — see, this is — this is why you do a better job than I do. I think it has to do with the ambiguity about the length of that word is what it has to do with. I think it has to do with the ambiguity about the length of that word. Some people hear “transitory,” and they’re going to think weeks and months. Others hear “transitory” — particularly, probably, economists who are used to the broader ups and downs of cycles — and think longer periods. And I think the lack of specificity about the cadence that was implied by that word — the temporal cadence implied by that word — led to a level of ambiguity that wasn’t serving the debate very well.
Reporter: And what about just the second part about “politically problematic”? Was that something you were hearing from voters, seeing show up in polls that that language was hurting the President?
MR. BERNSTEIN: I think that when it comes to, you know, politically …
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WH both ways: blame others when prices up, claim credit when prices down; Define transitory as periodicity trust future WH economic assessments.