373 Economists Say BBB Would Cause More Inflation
By John Gizzi
As they attempt to jumpstart the Build Back Better (BBB) economic agenda, both President Joe Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki have repeatedly cited claims by economists that the $1.75 trillion version of the measure would bring down inflation.
Last December, the Biden administration released a letter from 56 economists claiming that the BBB would “alleviate some of the strain caused by inflation.”
Psaki, in fact, has frequently reminded correspondents at White House briefings that the letter includes several Nobel Laureates.
Last week, 373 other economists made it clear enough was enough on this subject.
Brought together by the America First Institute (which includes many former Trump Administration officials), the 373 recently signed a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal voicing their fundamental disagreement with the BBB and the claims by Biden and Psaki about how it might impact the economy.
“In fact, the policies in the Build Back Better agenda would increase inflation, increase the federal debt, reduce the number of people working, badly misallocate capital, and hobble economic growth,” reads the statement by the economists.
Among those signing the statement are William D. Ford, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; James Miller, former head of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan; longtime U.S. Chamber of Commerce economist J.D. Foster; and several economists from Princeton, Harvard, and other Ivy League colleges and universities.
One of the 373 is Omar Borla, a visiting scholar at the University of Delaware’s Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration.
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