White House Downplays Economic Concerns, Claims Nearly 80% Americans ‘Financially Comfortable’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds her first news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington on May 16, 2022. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to defend President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy by downplaying the results of a Wall Street Journal survey which showed that 83 percent of respondents felt the country’s economy was “poor or not so good.”

When a reporter asked about the survey during a June 7 press briefing, Jean-Pierre said that “we are in a fundamentally different place compared to when the President took office and compared to this time a year ago.” She acknowledged people’s concerns about high prices, insisting that the president understands their situation “very personally.”

“During this presidency, people felt uncertain about the economy generally, but they actually felt as good about their personal financial situations as they ever have, according to the Federal Reserve survey, with nearly 80 percent of adults reporting that they are financially comfortable. So, that matters as well,” she said.

The survey also reported that six in 10 respondents were pessimistic about the possibility of most people achieving the American dream. When asked about the statistic, Jean-Pierre once again insisted that “we understand” how people feel about high food and gas prices, going on to claim that the American economy is “in a better place than it has been historically.”

The Biden administration and other experts feel that they are in a “good position” to tackle inflation and start lowering prices. However, this is something that the government has tasked the Federal Reserve to resolve as they have the monetary policies to “bring down inflation,” said the White House press secretary.

Jean-Pierre’s comments come as U.S. citizens are grappling with sky-high inflation and poor growth. The annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation, was 8.3 percent in April, just slightly lower than the 40-year high of 8.5 percent in March.

While food prices had risen by 9.4 percent, energy prices soared by 30.3 percent. Meanwhile, the U.S. GDP declined by an annualized rate of 1.4 percent during Q1, 2022.

The Biden administration has attracted criticism for how it is handling the American economy. “The president is slow to react—whether it’s the border, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s gas prices—even Ukraine,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said on CBS.

“The election this fall is going to be about inflation, it’s going to be about the effectiveness of the Biden administration, and I think it will bode well for Republicans.”

An ABCNews Ipsos poll released on June 5 had shown that just 28 percent of American voters are satisfied with how Biden has dealt with inflation. Up to 51 percent of respondents said that the economy and inflation will be important factors in the 2022 midterm elections.