Yahoo Finance Presents: Brian Deese

White House Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese sat down with Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita and Adam Shapiro to discuss how Biden is faring one year into his presidency, and the strides the administration is taking to tackle infrastructure, climate change, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Video transcript

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AKIKO FUJITA: Well Brian Deese is President Biden's top economic advisor as the director of the White House National Economic Council. And Brian, it's great to talk to you today on this one year mark since the president took office. We heard President Biden yesterday say that when we look back on his first year, the report card is going to look good on the economy. And yet inflation continues to be a big overhang looking at the president's accomplishments.

We heard the president yesterday sort of point the finger at the fed on inflation saying, a critical job of making sure elevated prices don't become entrenched rests with the fed. When you look at inflation at 40-year highs, to what extent does the president believe the fed's responsible?

BRIAN DEESE: Well I think looking back with context, 2021 was a historic economic year. The strongest job growth on record, the largest decline in unemployment in our nation's history, and the strongest economic growth in nearly four decades. In addition, we saw a 40% reduction in child poverty, a reduction in hunger, and an improvement in households balance sheets that is unique to America. We're only seeing that happen in the US. And so we think that if you're looking back, we've seen really historic progress.

And at the same time, we have challenges and work yet unfinished. The elevated price increases we've seen are clearly an issue. And what the president spoke directly to yesterday was the appropriate role for the Federal Reserve to play in dialing back some of the historic support it has been providing to the economy and the role that he can play in trying to help boost the productive capacity of our economy so we can move more goods and services through our economy more cheaply, and build on this historic progress that we've made.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, Brian. It was Will Rogers who said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a democrat." And I quote that from the last century because these days when we talk about, for instance, Build Back Better, and you've just highlighted the accomplishments of the first year, which include the $1.9 trillion relief from the pandemic, the infrastructure bill, how do you get the democrats who have one part of the party saying all or nothing, you have two senators who are saying we're not going to amend in any way a filibuster, how does the president build cohesion even if you're going to break out parts of Build Back Better to get that through both houses?

BRIAN DEESE: Well I think we do it by taking the approach the president outlined yesterday, which is identifying all of the areas where we can get support, build them together, get that done, and then keep working where we don't have it. And the good news is that broadly across democrats and the American people, there is broad support for taking steps that will help address the costs that families are facing on prescription drugs, on health care, on child care, on reducing energy prices by investing in clean energy.

In all of those areas, there is broad support. And to your Will Rogers point, I think that the more striking contrast here is all of those areas are areas where democrats agree and the American people agree. They're common sense, they would reduce costs. And we don't see any republicans supporting that. And frankly, we don't see the republicans supporting any real concrete plan to deal with the price increases that we're facing. So that's the way we're going to approach this. And the president has long experience in bringing coalitions together.

It is never easy. It is never quick and immediate. That was not the path that we took in getting a historic bipartisan infrastructure deal done last year. But that's the path we're going to keep at here. And we're confident we're going to get something done.

AKIKO FUJITA: With that said, Brian, there seems to be an increasing concession here that this large package, roughly $2 trillion is not going to be able to pass in its complete form. We heard the president yesterday talking about potentially breaking up the pieces. Is the climate bill the priority right now, the roughly $500 billion? If you don't have the support for the child tax credit, free community colleges, is the priority for the White House right now to move forward with at least a big chunk of this bill so you have something to take to the voters and say, look, we got this done?

BRIAN DEESE: Well the president made very clear, his priority is identifying all of the areas where we can find agreement, getting that done, and then continuing to work where we don't yet have agreement. And so that's exactly what we're going to do. And the need for investing in clean energy, having a more resilient energy system here in the United States that produces cheaper zero carbon energy here in the United States is a priority. Lowering the cost of child care, and health care, and prescription drugs is a priority.

These issues are hard. But we think we can get agreement on those. And even on issues like the child tax credit, the president made clear that's going to be tough. But he also made clear he really prioritizes it because what it does is it puts money directly in the hands of American families who are dealing with costs right now and empowers them by giving them a tax cut. So we're going to wherever we can get agreement, we're going to put this together and we're going to try to get it done.

ADAM SHAPIRO: There are possibilities with Senator Manchin who suggested a deal on climate provisions. What would that look like hypothetically? You and the president are in the Oval Office having a discussion with the Senator. What's that look like? How do you get him to say yes to something as you break it out of the bigger package?

BRIAN DEESE: Well Senator Manchin is a partner of one of the things that we're not going to do is to try to negotiate this out in public or characterize those conversations, that it's important that we maintain those lines of communications and we do so respectfully and privately. But what I can tell you is that the core focus is on, what are the impacts of these provisions on the lives and livelihoods of the American people? And how are they responsive to the current economic challenges that we face?

So investments in clean energy providing long term incentives to the market in a technology neutral way that will drive America to be a leader in generating the new clean energy technologies of the future, whether that be wind and solar, or nuclear and carbon capture and sequestration, that is a big economic priority, and a big win for our economy and our workers if we can get that right. We have an opportunity to do so in this package with provisions that have-- we spent a lot of time working with industry and with other stakeholders to get it right.

So that's a place where I think we can make a lot of progress.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about where things stand in the pandemic. Because it feels like there's been a bit of a shift in tone from the president to one year ago when he said we're going to beat this virus to today where he's saying, we're going to learn to live with the virus. If you look get this from the economic picture, I mean the supply shortages, price pressures, that's all come along with this. So to what extent can all that be controlled when you've still got the virus sort of looming in the background?

BRIAN DEESE: Well this is a pandemic driven crisis. And this recovery is marked by the intersection between the pandemic and the economy. No doubt about it. But you also heard the president loud and clear yesterday saying, he does not accept the idea that the current normal is what we are going to live with. And in fact, we are making progress toward an outcome where COVID is not affecting everybody's daily lives and constraining our economy in fundamental ways. And we're making real progress toward that goal. We're not there yet, but we're making real progress.

And as we progress on the virus, it helps progress on the economy as well. That's been true when we came into office. It was true last month. It'll be true next month as well. But that's why you see the president focusing on things like our supply chains. We're working with business and labor to try to open up our ports, open up our railways, and our trucking lines to move more goods through this economy. That's really important to do and it's important to do in a way that helps minimize the impact of the virus and maximize the ability to move goods and services through this economy.

I'll say today, we're releasing a dashboard that shows that the number of containers that are sitting on docs for a long period of time is down 60% since November. Even during the high holiday shopping season, that was because of hard work by port operators and companies across the private sector supply chain, and our administration working in partnership with them. And that's the kind of thing we're going to keep at going forward.

ADAM SHAPIRO: We hear the messaging about the accomplishments that have our facts on the table. The president talked about the success in breaking the logjam at the ports. A lot of people get frustrated with the concept that perception becomes reality. And yet the perception among a great many Americans is overlooking the accomplishments and that things are perhaps not as good as the facts imply they are. How do you break that perception, especially with the midterms now less than 12 months away?

BRIAN DEESE: Well I think what we see is historic progress and work yet to be done. And so as we focus on that progress, less for giving credit, and more for recognizing what we need to keep going to make sure that we don't lose sight of, or lose momentum, behind what is a historic economic recovery. But at the same time, the American people are frustrated. It's been a tough couple of years. And COVID and prices, they create uncertainty. And that's a reality for many families.

And so what we can do is focus on concrete tangible steps that we can take to help to address those issues in the short term, while continuing to grow an economic recovery that is showing disproportionate wage gains for lower income Americans who haven't seen a raise in way too long, that's showing disproportionate job opportunities so that people can move or start new businesses. That's the kind of economic opportunity we want to unlock over the course of the year. And I think the actions that we take will draw a line to outcomes that people can see in their lives.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, I mean, to Adam's point, there does appear to be a disconnect between the accomplishments the president's touting versus the perception of what they believe the president has done. When you look at his support, it's about what, 40% right now? Is this an issue of messaging? I mean we heard the president yesterday say, I need to get out more. I need to get out into communities more. Is that where the White House thinks the divide exists?

BRIAN DEESE: Look, I think it has been a tough couple of years. And the American people are understandably frustrated and anxious across the board. And so what the president is making clear is that the way to best address that is number one act in their interest and try to deliver on those outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved. On COVID, on prices, you hear him with a clear plan on that. And get out of the Washington bubble and more clearly communicate where we are making progress.

Because as difficult and as challenging as these circumstances are, it's important, for example, that we note that this past year, we saw 30% more applications for new small businesses in America than we saw even before the pandemic. That's important to try to make sure that people understand there's real opportunity in this economy. There's new opportunity associated with changes that are happening that people are already taking advantage of and others can too as well in a period where wages are increasing as well.

So it's important that we make those arguments while also meeting people where they are and show people concrete actions on the ground. I would say the last thing, you saw a president with a clear plan. With action steps, people may like them or not. But he is acting every day in concrete ways. And he's going to make the case that he wants democrats and republicans to join him. But for those who are solely focused on trying to stall progress, he's going to also put to the question that he raised yesterday of what is their plan as well.

AKIKO FUJITA: Brian Deese, good to have you on today. Really appreciate the time. Director of White House National Economic Council.