On Monday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein acknowledged that it’s “fair” to point out that prices are still elevated and things are still expensive even though the rate of inflation is going down, but said that questions about inflation hurting President Joe Biden’s job approval numbers are “stale” because “the approval rating…invokes a level of political tribalism that has a lot to do with things other than how the economy is doing.” And “the fact that inflation went from 9 to about 3%, is registering with folks, and especially when it starts generating real wage gains.”
Bernstein responded, “I am going to agree with you on this angle of when you get down and you drill down to what we’re actually doing, as opposed to these kind of more abstract 40,000-feet-up questions, 70% — 76% of people support the infrastructure law, the bipartisan infrastructure law, and that’s obviously to repair highways that they drive on, broadband Internet that they use, clean water that they drink. 72% support the CHIPS Act. And that’s obviously critical to, not only strengthening supply chains, but standing up the domestic semiconductor industry here. About two-thirds support the Inflation Reduction Act. And by the way, there’s — some of those statistics that I think you’re citing are getting a little bit stale.”