Former Obama Adviser Slams President: It’s ‘Biden’s Inflation,’ Own It

Former Obama adviser Steven Rattner slammed the administration for trying to pin record-high inflation on Vladimir Putin saying President Biden needs to "own it."

Former Obama adviser Steven Rattner slammed the administration for trying to pin record-high inflation on Vladimir Putin saying President Biden needs to “own it.”

Consumer prices spiked at a new 40-year high of 7.9% from last February according to the latest reports out of the Labor Department. Month over month, prices spiked at 0.8%.

The President has desperately tried to wash his hands of the inflation crisis and has found a very convenient excuse in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Today’s inflation report is a reminder that Americans’ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike,” a statement by Biden reads.

“A large contributor to inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin’s aggressive actions.”

Some White House flaks have consistently pushed the ‘Putin price hike’ talking point.

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Former Obama Adviser: It’s Biden’s Inflation

Rattner, who is now an economic analyst for MSNBC, slammed Biden’s inflation claim noting that the numbers derived only briefly were affected by Russian sanctions.

“Well, no. These are [February numbers] and only include small Russia effect,” Rattner tweeted. “This is Biden’s inflation and he needs to own it.”

To bolster Rattner’s response, a CNN report indicates that Labor Department data shows inflation “accelerating” before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On top of that, consumer prices have risen at or above 5% year-over-year for 10 months.

The price increase reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include the oil and gas price surges that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of that month.

Those oil and gas prices were also blamed on Putin.

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Rick Santelli, considered by some to be the ‘Father of the Tea Party,’ also shredded President Biden for trying to politicize the inflation crisis.

“Nothing, Joe, nothing has been more politicized than inflation,” Santelli railed. “Just let’s harken back to all the things we’ve been through. First it was transitory, then, ‘inflation is good,’ then we went to corporate greed.”

“Now we’re at Putin,” he scoffed.

Other comments made over the last several months seem to cast doubt on the ‘Putin price hike’ narrative.

Former Obama and Clinton economist Larry Summers said back in November the “tremendous wall of money” that the Democrats “released last Spring” led to inflation.

Biden’s own Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen placed blame at the feet of the $1.9 trillion spending boondoggle she described as one of the “factors that are involved in inflation.”

Rattner has previously cast the Biden administration’s defense of their role in the inflation crisis as “dishonest” and “disingenuous.”

“It’s a classic economic case of ‘too much money chasing too few goods,’ resulting in both higher prices,” he said noting that the White House was trying to blame supply chain issues for inflation last month.

“The Biden administration needs to shift its approach … Mr. Biden has been disingenuous.”

“Blaming inflation on supply lines is like complaining about your sweater keeping you too warm after you’ve added several logs to the fireplace,” he added.

President Biden eight months ago said that inflation at the time was merely transitory.

“I want to be clear: my administration understands that were we ever to experience unchecked inflation in the long term, that would pose a real challenge for our economy,” he said over the summer.

“While we’re confident that isn’t what we’re seeing today, we’re going to remain vigilant about any response that is needed.”

Fox News reporter Peter Doocy cornered White House press secretary Jen Psaki yesterday asking what the word ‘temporary’ means to the administration.

“We just heard you say again, that you think inflation is going to be temporary. We’ve heard you say that it was going to be temporary since last spring. So how long do you guys think temporary is?” he asked.

Doocy also flattened Psaki by asking if it was the administration’s stance that Vladimir Putin will be blamed for everything going awry in the country.

“The president’s statement blames the ‘Putin price hike,'” he said. “Are you guys just going to start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?”

You don’t honestly think they’ll accept responsibility for being economically illiterate, do you?

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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