Senator Britt questions Jared Bernstein on inflation

Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs questioned Dr. Jared Bernstein, President Biden’s nominee to be Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), on his steadfast support for the most radical of the Biden Administration’s economic agenda items.

Senator Britt noted previous statements by Dr. Bernstein downplaying inflation by claiming it was merely “transitory.” Responding to Senator Britt’s questioning, Dr. Bernstein today asserted that categorizing inflation as “transitory” was “correct” but “too ambiguous.” He would not say that the term “transitory” should not have been used by the Administration, but he did admit after being pressed that persistently high inflation has lasted longer than the Administration anticipated when they first used the “transitory” messaging.

Additionally, Senator Britt made the case that Dr. Bernstein, a current member of the CEA, simply wants to double down on the very policies that have fueled inflation since January 2021.

As she noted in her line of questioning, Dr. Bernstein’s insistence on advising the President to continue pushing a partisan tax-and-spend agenda makes him unfit to serve as our nation’s chief economist – a role which traditionally is reserved for a nonpartisan, serious expert. Bernstein’s nomination is the wrong answer at the wrong time and is an insult to the hardworking families facing a kitchen table crisis across Alabama and our nation.