Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tried to defend President Joe Biden‘s economic policies by suggesting all people are better off now than they were before his inauguration.
Yellen appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday to issue a response to a poll that found most people in the United States believe the country is undergoing a recession. Notably, Biden’s 2024 opponent former President Donald Trump has polled better on questions surrounding the economy, as potential voters view his policies better than Biden’s.
The treasury secretary cited the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group that recently submitted an analysis of people’s purchasing power in each income group. In this analysis, the CBO examined data from last year versus 2019, before Biden took office and before the country experienced COVID-19.
“All Americans, both those who are well off and those who are near the bottom of the income distribution, are better off now that wages have risen more than prices,” Yellen summarized the findings.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed earlier this week that there are increasing financial pressures on those in the lowest income group. Powell pointed to the country’s job report which toted some 272,000 jobs to help those in this group. According to Yellen, the solution has been wage increases.
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“I think President Biden understands that people are feeling pain,” Yellen said. “I think they’ve seen the level of prices rise quite a lot, I mean, over 20% over the last three years or so. They can remember when the price of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread was 30% lower than it is now. And low-income families have seen some of the highest increases in costs. That said, wages have also gone up.”
Inflation fell by 0.2% in May and decreased by 2.2% over the year.
Meanwhile, Trump is also making the state of the economy a focal point of his campaign. He announced at a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday that he would end taxes on wages for workers who collect tips.