Biden Admin Claims Record Inflation Won’t Interfere With Budget Plans

The White House did not adjust for historic inflation in crafting President Joe Biden’s budget request for the fiscal year 2023 and does not expect elevated prices across nearly all commercial goods to affect the administration’s plan for deficit reduction.

Biden’s budget predicts that yearly inflation will drop to 2.3% in 2023 and remain constant the following year. Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Cecilia Rouse confirmed that the assumption was locked on November 10, 2021.

“If we were updating today, we would look at it somewhat differently,” she told reporters during a briefing on the budget request. “After our forecast was already completed, we do expect that that is going to create additional price pressures over the coming year.”

“We expect the economy to normalize, but there’s tremendous uncertainty, but we and other external forecasters expect inflation will ease over the coming year,” Rouse added.

The White House faced multiple follow-up questions during Monday’s briefing about the 2.3% inflation forecast, as year-over-year inflation skyrocketed to 7.9% in February, the highest level since the Carter administration.

Rouse maintained, however, that the White House believes inflation will not hinder Biden’s economic plan from reducing the U.S. deficit by more than $1.3 trillion next year, should Congress meet his budget request in full.

“We will have a chance to update our forecast for the next budget, and that update will reflect recent events that were unknown in the forecast,” she explained.”We have actually done analysis of the impact of unexpected changes in inflation on our budget, and based on that analysis, inflation above the forecast raises both expenditures and revenues by similar amounts such that it will have little impact on the deficit overall.”

Biden himself has predicted that the United States’s pressure campaign on Russia will lead to further price increases, specifically for energy products.

Furthermore, he suggested during a trip to Europe last week that the U.S. and Western allies are preparing for the “real” possibility of global food shortages sparked by sanctions placed on Russian fertilizer components.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia,” Biden stated at a press conference in Brussels. “It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”