Biden calls rate cut ‘an important day for the country’

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday called the Federal Reserve’s rate cut the day before an “important signal” from the Fed to Americans that inflation is cooling, but he cautioned that it “doesn’t mean the work is done” to improve the economy.

In remarks on Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Biden said, “Yesterday was an important day for the country.”

“Two and a half years after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates, it announced that it began lowering interest rates,” Biden said. “I think it’s good news for consumers, and that means the cost of buying a home, a car, and so much more would be going down. And it’s good news in my view, for the overall economy.”

The president in his remarks discussed how far the U.S. has come since the COVID-19 pandemic, including supply chain issues, high costs of food and goods, and baby formula shortages. He also checked through all of his legislative achievements such as the American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“At its peak, as you all know, inflation was 9.1% in the United States. Today it’s much closer to 2%,” Biden said. “It doesn’t mean our work is done. Far from it. Far from it, no one should confused why I’m here. I’m not here to take a victory lap. I’m not here to say, ‘A job well done.’ I’m not here to say ‘We don’t have a hell of a lot more work to do.’ We do have more work to do.”

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told reporters on a call previewing Biden’s remarks that president and Vice President Kamala Harris are still looking ahead to the work that is not finished, pointing to the cost of child care and housing as two of the biggest areas.

One White House official on the call was asked about whether the administration was concerned about rising unemployment in response to today’s rate cut, but the official brushed off the concern, saying that the Fed’s data today shows “the labor market remaining solid,” and adding that unemployment has “remained the lowest on average of any administration in 50 years.”

A reporter also asked whether rising tensions in the Middle East could be a setback in the fight against rising inflation. The different White House official said that it is one of the “geopolitical risks that we consistently monitor.”

“But our assessment, you know, right now is that the economy is in a healthy place, and that the kind of range of risks, while we continue to monitor them are do not pose a significant risk to the to the outlook,” the White House official added.

In his remarks Thursday, Biden also falsely claimed that he has “never once spoken to the chairman of the Fed since I became president.” He actually met with Jerome Powell in the Oval Office in May 2022.