Steven Rattner, a former economic adviser for President Obama, blasted the Biden administration in a New York Times guest essay recently for getting the critical issue of inflation “so wrong,” while reminding Democrats he and other economic experts “warned” them about this.
The U.S. Consumer Price Index is the highest it’s been in 30 years, with prices up 6.2 percent from a year ago. Don’t be surprised when this Christmas season becomes the priciest in decades. Bloomberg News recently reported that this high rate of inflation will spoil the holidays for many struggling families and will mean fewer gifts under the tree this year.
Rattner, who served as counselor to the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration and has donated hundreds of thousands to Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission findings, asked, “How could an administration loaded with savvy political and economic hands have gotten this critical issue so wrong?
“They can’t say they weren’t warned — notably by Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary and my former boss in the Obama administration, and less notably by many others, including me. We worried that shoveling an unprecedented amount of spending into an economy already on the road to recovery would mean too much money chasing too few goods,” Rattner added.
Rattner also rejected Biden’s pledges that his Build Back Better will help alleviate the problem. White House national economic director Brian Deese recently argued the $1.75 trillion social spending and climate package would help get people back to work and in turn “reduce price pressures.”
But Rattner cited research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, estimating that the plan would likely add $800 billion or more to the deficit over the next five years, “exacerbating inflationary pressures.”
Rattner instructed the White House to start adopting “fiscal discipline.” But don’t hold your breath until that happens.