The National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, has "crossed the line" when defending Donald Trump's economic policies, a Nobel Prize winner has said.
Paul Krugman suggested that comments made by the NEC head were not given "honestly" and tried to massage the failings of the president's economic plan. Writing in his Substack earlier today, Krugman criticised Hassett's comments to Nancy Cordes for CBS's Face the Nation.
When asked how holiday shoppers who want to save money should spend this year, Hassett claimed that "egg prices are down" and gasoline was heading for a "drop below $2 a gallon". These claims, Krugman says, are dishonest.
He wrote, "Was Hassett lying, or just unaware of basic facts? Neither is what you want to see in a man who may soon be overseeing monetary policy."
"Furthermore, if you’re trying to assess economic policy, it’s hard to come up with worse indicators than the prices of eggs and gasoline. Egg prices fluctuate wildly, not in response to policy changes, but because of the coming and going of bird flu. Gasoline prices mainly reflect the global price of crude oil, a price on which U.S. policy has at most a marginal influence."
Krugman would later suggest Hassett's comments are trying to boost the president's policies a little too much, likening the comments to "sycophancy" rather than acknowledging reality.
He added, "I understand that when you work for the president — any president — you’re expected to make the best case you honestly can for his policies. But 'honestly' is the key word. Sycophancy toward a president who refuses to acknowledge reality, who insists that affordability is a 'con job,' crosses that line.
CNN's Daniel Dale had previously taken the president to task on his economic policies, suggesting there are a "whole lot of lies" about many of the administration's "greatest hits".
He said, "A whole lot of lies about a whole lot of subjects and some of the greatest-hits claims we've been hearing over and over from him on the subjects of the economy and affordability."
"For example, he said that he's cutting prescription drug prices by 500 percent to 900 percent. He said that's something nobody's ever heard of. Well, nobody's ever heard of it because those numbers don't make mathematical sense."
