US Blames ‘Global Challenges’ For Record Inflation

By Staff, Agencies

The White House on Tuesday insisted that “global challenges” such as the conflict in Ukraine, and not President Joe Biden’s policies, are to blame for inflation in the US.

Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted the economy remains strong and the government is in a “good position” to tackle the current headwinds.

“What we're dealing with right now, is global challenges,” Jean-Pierre told ABC’s Good Morning America in an interview on Tuesday, arguing the US economy was in a crisis when Biden took office. Only Democrats voted for his American Rescue Plan, she said, and “it’s put us in a place where we are in a stronger economic position to deal with inflation.”

Jean-Pierre echoed that remark later in the day, at the White House press briefing dominated by actor Matthew McConaughey’s gun control speech.

“What we’re trying to say, what I’m trying to say to you, is that the economy is in a better place than it has been historically,” she told reporters.

Jean-Pierre also doubled down on the White House claim that gasoline prices spiked because of Russian actions in Ukraine, listing other countries where this happened as well – all of whom imposed sanctions against Moscow.

Fox News contributor and US Marine veteran Johnny Joey Jones fact-checked Jean-Pierre by pointing out that US gasoline prices had increased from $2.09 to $3.30 prior to the events in Ukraine, “and the embargoes didn’t start when the war started.”

Part of Biden’s plan to combat inflation is to give the Federal Reserve “some space, some independence because they have the most impactful tools,” Jean-Pierre told GMA. The Fed’s most recent move was to raise the base interest rate last month. 

On Capitol Hill, however, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a different argument. The Fed’s monetary policy needs to be complemented by the “appropriate budgetary stance” in order to reduce inflation without undermining the labor market, she told the Senate Finance Committee.