Psaki: The Economy Is, Like, Really Good, Guys

BUCK: Just on the “you don’t know what’s going on America; the Biden Democrats are super smart and know what’s going on,” Jen Psaki, we’re looking at the economy right now, Clay, and we were just talking before about the budget and inflation and the Build Back Better effects. Here’s Psaki telling everybody, guys, “It’s, like, really good. You just don’t understand how good it is.”

PSAKI: The way people experience it — and the president just said this as well — is not by looking at charts in the paper, right? As much as we love charts because it’s important for us to note, it’s about their monthly budget and how much it takes to fill up our — their tank of gas, how much it takes to buy meat to have burgers for a barbecue. That’s what I was saying.

What we’re seeing in our data is people’s psychology on the economy — on how they’re experiencing things in the country right now — is related to covid and the fact that covid… We’re still in a fight against this virus. People expected it to be over sooner, and people are looking to get back to a normal version of life.

BUCK: Can we just…? Clay, this is what they’re reduced to. They’re relegated to this. You don’t know, America, how smart we Biden Democrats are and what a great job we’re doing, specifically with the economy, because of covid.

CLAY: Vast majorities of red states have zero covid impact in our lives now. Other than when we go to the airport, nobody’s having to wear masks — nobody’s having to change behavior, really, in any kind of substantial way — and what Jen Psaki won’t acknowledge is, with inflation at 6.8%, the highest it has been since all the way back in 1982… The reason why inflation is so high is because of disastrous economic choices that are being made inside of the Biden White House, and the overall rate of wage increase…

This is pretty big, Buck, and it doesn’t get a lot of discussion because the Biden administration’s trying to say, “Oh, this is the best economy we’ve ever had!” That’s what they’re pitching, all the media that are coming out and saying it. The average wage is up 4.6% in this country right now. That sounds good. The problem is, cost is up 6.8%. So the American people understand they might be making more money, but because of the overall inflation rate, they’re bringing home less than they were before covid.

BUCK: They even noticed this over at the quasi-commie CBS News because this is data, right. These are numbers we’re all working with. They can tell you whatever they want, but when they calculate the number for what inflation is, when they’re calculating CPI, when they’re calculating these things, we’re all working from the same number set.

And here’s CBS News talking, Clay, about exactly what you just laid out, which is, “Okay, yeah. Wages are going up, but they’re not keeping up with the cost of living,” which is even more specific than inflation. And what are expenses like right now for a family. Think about this in broad terms. Oh, it’s up 8%, but some sectors hire and some sectors lower and some… Okay. If you’re a family of four in America, you need food, shelter, transportation, and a few of the basics. What’s that like right now? Apparently, it’s about $4,000 more expensive.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Begin tonight with a staggering inflation that is hitting Americans right in the wallet. Prices were up 6.8% November compared to a year ago. That is the biggest increase in nearly 40 years. The cost of pretty much everything is surging — food, gas, electricity, housing, cars, and clothes — and those who received raises this year are seeing ’em wiped out by skyrocketing costs. Listen to this. By one estimate, expenses for a typical American family have shot up by about $4,000 in the past year.

BUCK: That’s a lot of money.

CLAY: There you go. It’s real mean. And it’s a natural consequence of pouring all of this money into the economy while simultaneously saying, “Hey, we’ve got to pay workers more.” Because this is what’s so infuriating and frustrating to people who understand basic business. When you go to McDonald’s and a McDonald’s worker is now making let’s say $15 an hour, the way that is handled by the business owner is they increase costs of their overall products.

So you pay more, which means that your overall cost increases. And, unfortunately, the inflationary spiral that we have hit is, even with the increase of wages it’s immediately getting passed on to consumers because the business owner has to pay increased labor costs. That’s a simple example. But if you go out to McDonald’s, for instance…

I go to McDonald’s probably far more often than I should with my kids, or Chick-fil-A or whenever you may be go. For relatively low-cost, rapid fast-food eating, the costs on those menus have gone up massively, Buck, because their overall cost structure. And, by the way, it’s not just wages. It’s how much they’re having to pay for chicken or beef or whatever product that they are producing inside of their store.

They don’t take losses because in capitalism they pass that cost on to the consumer, and so when they have efficiencies of scale and the costs come down, they can maybe their food product cheaper. When the costs go up, they charge more, and everybody is seeing it. By the way, gas is the easiest place to see it ’cause it’s up, I think, right around 60% over last year. Even me, Buck, when I’m standing there filling up my car… I know you’ve got the scooter so you don’t have this experience derricks.

BUCK: Whoa, whoa, whoa hold on. The scooter is RIP, Clay, okay? The scooter is a thing of the past. It got stolen by a hooligan.

CLAY: I will stand there and just watch the dollars continue to roll at the gas station, and I’m like, “I can’t even believe what it costs now — never has happened like this — to fill up my car,” and I know there’s many people out there listening to us right now have the same experience. There are people filling their cars right now talking to us, Buck, looking at those numbers going up, and they are saying to themselves, “This is a direct reflection of the economy that Joe Biden has created.”

BUCK: Let’s be very clear about something. It’s obvious, but it’s easy to forget and in the maelstrom of misinformation that they’re intentionally putting out — really the distraction, the mass distraction technique they’re always using. If they had really positive things to tell people that would resonate about the economy, about any number of issues right now, honestly about how well they’re handling covid, if they had really positive stories, they would tell them.

They’re actually in a position where their best option because things are going so poorly is to tell you what you’re experiencing isn’t really what you’re experiencing. When you think things at the grocery store and at the gas pump and paying your rent, by the way, and paying, you know, your different costs, when you think that’s more expensive, just know that Jen Psaki knows more about balancing your checkbook than you do.

And there is, you know, some hocus-pocus here. Clay, this is why Biden’s poll numbers are so low. I’m just worried that there will be some kind of a snap-back effect next year where it can’t get much worse than this, right? So I don’t want to people getting complaints because I feel like the Biden regime is crumbling too rapidly. I want them crumbling right around November or actually right around October when people will be making their final decisions in November of next year.

CLAY: I just don’t see how it’s gonna get a lot better, but it is a strong point, I think, by you that it’s so awful that the way people experience the Biden administration were at the absolute nadir, the absolute positive — I mean, least positive point we can be. It may well start to come back not as good, but just not be as bad as it is right now.