Jared Bernstein: Biden’s Chief Economic Advisor has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, a Master of Social Work, a Master’s in Philosophy and a PhD is Social Welfare

Commentary

Citing President Biden’s comment a year ago that “no serious economist thought that the U.S. would enter a period of unchecked inflation” at a time when the U.S. had 5.4 percent inflation, Fox Sunday News Host Shannon Bream asked, “How did the White House get this so wrong?” noting that it’s at 9.1 percent as of this week.

Her question was directed at Jared Bernstein, chairman of Biden’s Council of Economics Advisors, who insists that the president’s economic agenda is helping families achieve “good economic health.”  She should have asked, ‘How did you get this so wrong?’

Before I comment on Bernstein’s response to that question and his view of the Biden economy, you need to know a bit about his credentials. 

JARED BERNSTEIN, BIDEN’S CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISOR

Bernstein graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with the bachelor’s degree in music, studying double bass under the renowned bassist Orin O’Brien. He earned a Master of Social Work from Hunter College and a master’s degree in philosophy and a PhD in social welfare from Columbia University.

In the 1990s, Bernstein was a senior official at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal think tank that focuses on issues affecting low-and-middle income working people.  After a brief break, when he worked an economist with the Department of Labor, he returned to the EPI as its director of the Living Standards Program.  Open Secrets appropriately refers to Bernstein as a revolving door individual.  He also served on Biden’s transition team.

Background – EPI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that receives two-thirds of is funding from foundation grants.  You most likely wouldn’t recognize most of the names on its board, but its chair is the president of the AFL-CIO, and vice chair is the dean of ethnic studies at Cal State Los Angeles.  Its secretary is with the New School of Social Research.  Two names you may recognize, Jocelyn Frye, of the National Partnership for Women and Families, and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers.

When you review his background as a social worker and his support of progressive economic policy, it’s easy to understand why Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin opposed Bernstein’s confirmation.

Manchin noted Bernstein’s support of Biden’s radical energy policies of the Green New Deal while disregarding the need for all-of-the-above energy policies, and the need for federal budget cuts to alleviate the skyrocketing cost of living for working families, didn’t serve him well as a nominee he could confirm.

Back to his response to Bream’s question. Bernstein claimed that Biden’s statement was the dominant view of economists at the time, but quickly noted “some unforeseen things that occurred, namely the war in Ukraine, putting upward pressure on prices.”

While conceding that inflation is “unacceptably high,” he stressed that Biden would not back down on climate change spending initiatives and does not see the country as headed toward a recession.  Bream failed to ask Bernstein if he personally believed that.

Bernstein said the Biden recognizes the “urgency of taking action against climate change and building up our clean energy industries, so important for good American jobs going forward.”  In the process, he peddled the fabricated numbers of new jobs and the increase in wages, he has Biden’s speechwriter include in his Bidenomics appearances.

Speaking of Biden’s climate change measures, Bernstein referred to his tapping the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of clean energy, his rigorous emissions standards, and his jumpstarting the offshore wind industry.

“If there’s no legislative path forward,” Bernstein declared, “he (Biden) will take the executive order and rule change path.”  

That’s akin to his executive actions to ignore the Supreme Court’s rulings.  He talks about the Democrat Party’s belief in the importance of the rule of law, but if he doesn’t like the rule, he writes an executive order and invites a law suit.

Looking Back to the Trump era

While with the EPI, Bernstein would often write op-eds in the Washington Post.  In a piece critical of the Trump tax cuts, he referred to them “breaking the linkage between growth and revenue flows in the Treasury’s coffers, our main problem isn’t spending, it’s too little revenue.”

Then Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Bernie Sanders were in the news opposing the tax cut “scam.”

Bernstein was so wrong.  Going into 2023, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office revealed that Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 raised revenue over the last five years; collecting $4.9 trillion in 2022, $500 billion higher than the CBO had projected.

Federal revenues are now up about $1.5 trillion, or 40 percent, since the Trump tax cuts went into effect at the beginning of 2018.

After Biden claimed that all of the tax cut benefits “went to folks at the top and corporations,” the Washington Post fact-checker said he was wrong.  Beyond raising revenues, the Act lowered taxes for all income groups, particularly the middle class, according to studies and government data.

Real median household incomes grew by more than $5,000 in 2018 and 2019, and $6,500 in Trump’s four years.

Trump’s team on the economy included Art Laffer, who is credited with formulating the tax cuts, Tyler Goodspeed, Kevin Hassett, Stephen Moore, and Larry Kudlow.

In addition to Laffer’s book, “Taxes Have Consequences,” Hassett’ latest book, “The Drift: Stopping America’s Slide to Socialism,” and Moore’s book, “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government is Devouring Our Economy and Our Freedom,” are must reading for those who need convincing that Biden has it all wrong.

They may not have the talent to play a double bass like Bernstein, but they know more about economics than he will ever learn.

When I went back to read Biden’s statement following Bernstein’s confirmation, I was struck by the lack of any commentary on his credentials.  Instead, he resorted to inserting Bernstein’s name in his Dad’s tired quote: “Jared uniquely understands that a job is about far more than a paycheck, it’s about the dignity of work.”  Just one line in the six-line statement.  Some endorsement.

It could be said that Bernstein is plucking while our economy suffers.

May God continue to bless the Unites States of America.