On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Senior Adviser to President Joe Biden Gene Sperling responded to a question on who is to blame for survey data showing that a majority of Native American, black, and Hispanic households say inflation has caused serious financial issues for them and most also say they can’t cover a month of expenses with their savings by stating that before the pandemic, “two-thirds of Americans didn’t have an extra $400.” And President Biden has worked to make things better for working people.
Host Ana Cabrera asked, “When surveyed, a majority of Native American, black, and Latino households report that inflation has caused them serious financial problems. And a majority also say they don’t even have enough money in terms of emergency savings to cover at least one month of expenses, and that’s despite the record low unemployment. So, this economy isn’t working for a lot of Americans. Who’s to blame for that?”
Sperling responded, “Well, listen, there was a famous survey that showed that — long before the pandemic — that showed over two-thirds of Americans didn’t have an extra $400. I think what the president’s tried to do, both through the American Rescue Plan with things like the child tax credit, with the — and just a basic pro-worker policy is to put Americans in a better and stronger situation. But you’re right, we are in an economy where we have a historically good labor force. I mean, you mentioned Hispanic unemployment is actually at the lowest in history. It’s been dropped by over half. That’s good news. But, yeah, people are facing the higher prices and I think our goal is to keep sustaining as much as possible those benefits in the labor economy where people are working, where many people are getting better jobs. This month actually saw real wage gains. But, at the same time, doing every single thing we can, from prescription drugs, to energy prices, to allowing people to get Internet coverage up to 50 million for virtually nothing, we’re just going to do everything we can and realize that there’s a good, strong job market, low unemployment, but a lot of people feel like they’re giving up too much of [those] wages at the grocery line…and that’s what we’re dealing with and that’s what we’re focused on every day.”
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