Biden’s ‘kitchen cabinet’: President got tips on dealing with inflation from people at church, golf and parents from his grandchildren’s field hockey games, report claims as White House insists there won’t be a recession
- President Joe Biden got tips on how to deal with inflation from people at church, his golf club and at his grandkids’ field hockey games
- Bloomberg reported Thursday that Biden has broadened his economic advisers to include everyday Americans that he runs into when home in Delaware
- White House sources said they are often barraged with questions from the president after these impromptu meetings
- The president will ask, for example, why the price of milk is down but the cost of eggs is up
- Biden also speaks to about a dozen union leaders regularly to hear what their membership is experiencing
- It’s unclear how much economic pain the president is hearing about, but the White House maintains that the country isn’t sliding towards a recession
President Joe Biden got tips on how to deal with inflation from people at church, at his Delaware golf club and at his grandkids’ field hockey games, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Biden has broadened his economic advisers to include everyday Americans whom he runs into on his frequent trips home to Wilmington, Delaware, while he also calls union bosses to hear what their membership is experiencing.
White House sources told Bloomberg that they’re often barraged with follow-up questions after these Wilmington conversations, with the president asking, for example, why the price of milk is down but the cost of eggs is up.
It’s unclear how much economic pain people tell the president they’re experiencing, but the White House maintains that the country isn’t sliding towards a recession.
President Joe Biden got tips on how to deal with inflation from people at church, at his Delaware golf club and at his grandkids’ field hockey games, Bloomberg reported Thursday
President Joe Biden was captured leaving church last month. Biden has broadened his economic advisers to include everyday Americans whom he runs into on his frequent trips home to Wilmington, Delaware
On Air Force One Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continued to press ‘that the strength of our labor market is just not consistent, it really isn’t, with a recession or even pre-recession.’
‘We believe our economy is incredibly resilient,’ she continued.
Later she added, ‘As we see the economy as a whole, we do not see it going into a recession.’
Still, the president is on the precipice of likely losing Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress because the Republicans have campaigned effectively on sentiments of doom and gloom about the economy.
‘Unfortunately for Democrats, the economy supersedes everything else,’ Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics recently told CTV News.
And in the run-up to the midterms, Biden has both commiserated with Americans who are struggling to deal with the high price of food and gas and also pushed that the US economy is strong.
‘The president’s message on the economy has been indecipherable,’ Sabato added. ‘I think it’s hurt Democrats. I think it’s fast [Biden]. He was given bad advice.’
Biden, who entered the US Senate at age 30, spent decades gaining an expertise in foreign policy and the judiciary, not economic issues – and thus does not have deep ties with Wall Street or business leaders, Bloomberg pointed out.
‘I don’t think President Biden has a relationship with the business community. It’s unsurprising when you think about it because he was not a senator who trafficked in these circles,’ Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a top economic adviser to former President George W. Bush who now runs the research group American Action Forum, told Bloomberg.
Among the corporate head honchos Biden has forged a relationship with are Apple’s Tim Cook, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan and the heads of Target and Walmart.
And Biden speaks with about a dozen labor leaders, Bloomberg said, including Lonnie Stephenson of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Lee Saunders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and Tom Conway of the United Steelworkers.
‘He really does talk to everyone, so it’s not like he’ll ever say, “I want to talk to everybody except the bankers.” That’s not where he is,’ Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein, a longtime Biden aide, told Bloomberg. ‘But neither will he ever think he’s getting the real rundown of the economy by talking to someone from the top 1 percent.’
.