White House: Biden’s Had ‘Incredibly Strong Set of Progressive Accomplishments’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” White House National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti stated that President Joe Biden has had “an incredibly strong set of progressive accomplishments over the last two-and-a-half years” that isn’t repealed in the debt ceiling bill.

After listening to Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) saying there aren’t any wins for Democrats in the debt bill, Ramamurti stated, “Well, we respectfully disagree. I think you have to take a bigger picture look at all of this. Since the President has come into office two-and-a-half years ago, we’ve seen an incredible amount of economic progress. Remember, the unemployment rate was well over 6% when he came into office. Now, it’s 3.4%, which is the lowest it’s been since 1969. He has secured all of these incredible investments that are just starting to hit the economy. What we are trying to do is preserve those investments, preserve the progress that we have made. And we’ve done that by essentially locking in the wins that we’ve gotten over the last two years. Look, we have to take a step back and realize that we’re now in a period of divided government, not everybody’s going to get everything that they want. That’s the reality of governing. But overall, the President has an economic vision, that economic vision is working, and what this deal allows us to do is continue to see that through over the next two years and preserve the victories that we’ve gotten so far.”

Co-host Kate Bolduan then asked, “If Dusty Johnson’s describing it as a remarkable conservative accomplishment and you disagree, is it a remarkable progressive accomplishment or a remarkable compromise accomplishment? … Obviously, everyone is going to be able to — and going to speak about it and brand it and brand the negotiations however they’re going to, but how do you describe what literally we’re looking at in terms of legislation now before the American people?”

Ramamurti answered, “I would describe it as a good, fair deal that reflects the realities of divided government, that helps preserve what has been an incredibly strong set of progressive accomplishments over the last two-and-a-half years.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett