Fox News’ Bill Hemmer questioned former Obama Economic Council Chair Jason Furman Friday over a tweet in which the economist stated that inflation and supply chain disruptions were “high class problems”.
“To paraphrase Jay Leno, ‘what in the hell were you thinking?'” Hemmer asked Furman during “America’s Newsroom.” Furman responded by acknowledging that inflation is a tough issue affecting American families. However, he claimed that the cause of inflation was a “good thing” due to “record spending,” according to Fox News.
Most of the economic problems we’re facing (inflation, supply chains, etc.) are high class problems. We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10 percent. We would instead have had a much worse problem.
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) October 14, 2021
“The problem isn’t that our ports stopped working, it’s that people are buying so much stuff that so much is coming through our ports right now. We have record volumes, you know that both have a good side, a bad side, you need to keep both those in your head,” Furman argued.
Hemmer pressed him, arguing that it is mainly the middle-class who are paying higher prices for goods.
“My guess would be if you were paying two bucks a gallon for gasoline a year ago and now it’s over four bucks — that’s not a high-class problem for anyone. Middle-class America is paying for that,” Hemmer said.
Furman continued to stick to his position, arguing that increased spending, and therefore increased demand, formed the root cause of inflation.
Some conservatives, including Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, argued that Furman’s characterization downplayed the issue of inflation, which they blamed on President Joe Biden’s administration.
Biden’s inflation bomb:
🚨Consumer prices ⬆️ 5.4%
🚨Grocery prices have skyrocketed: eggs ⬆️12.6%, chicken ⬆️7.6 %, & fresh fruit ⬆️5.0%
🚨New car prices ⬆️ 8.7%, largest increase in 4 decadesInflation isn’t a high class problem, it’s tax on workers & anyone on a fixed income.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) October 14, 2021
According to this administration, we must choose between massive inflation, shipping bottlenecks, and huge numbers of Americans dropping out of the workforce…or 10% unemployment. Good midterm messaging there. pic.twitter.com/3Zcvt07Y5u
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 14, 2021
On Thursday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain shared Furman’s tweet on inflation, sparking backlash from some critics. (RELATED: Top Obama Economist Goes After Woke Fed For Opening An Inflation Pandora’s Box)
This 👇👇 https://t.co/ymh53nEHAg
— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) October 14, 2021
White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Klein’s retweet at a press briefing later that day.
“So I think the point here is: While there are some critics who are saying — what some of these critics are saying is: I don’t — we don’t know if they’re saying that what they thought was great was when the unemployment rate was double what it is today,” Psaki stated. “Or when people were locked in their homes and therefore gas prices were lower. We’re at this point because the unemployment rate has come down and been cut in half, because people are buying more goods, because people are traveling, and because demand is up, and because the economy is turning back on.”