President Joe Biden argued on CBS News' "60 Minutes" Sunday that last week's inflation report that caused the stock market to nosedive was up "hardly at all" from the previous month and should be put "in perspective."
When Biden was asked what his administration can do better and quicker to bring down prices, the president said that the 8.3% annual inflation rate revealed last Tuesday was "just an inch" higher than the previous report and that people shouldn't act shocked at the number.
Biden acknowledged that the inflation number is not good, but pointed out that it was 8.2% the month before, meaning that "we're in a position where, for the last several months, it hasn't spiked … it's been basically even."
Biden added that since his administration entered the White House, "We created all these jobs and prices have gone up, but they've come down for energy. The fact is that we've created 10 million new jobs … [and] we're in a situation where the unemployment rate is about 3.7%, one of the lowest in history. We're in a situation where manufacturing is coming back to the United States in a big way."
Biden insisted that the economy would not get worse before it gets better, saying, "We hope we can have what they say, 'a soft landing,' a transition to a place where we don't lose the gains that I ran to make in the first place for middle-class folks, being able to generate good-paying jobs and expansion. And at the same time, make sure that we … are able to continue to grow."
But the president refused declare that inflation would decline, saying, "We're gonna get control of inflation" and vowed to lower prescription drug prices, healthcare costs, and energy bills.
August's CPI report increased concerns that inflation is more entrenched than previously thought, with prices up 0.1% on a monthly basis, the Washington Examiner reported.
After the report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 1,200 points, the worst day for U.S. stocks since the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.