Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the supply chain backups at America’s ports were a product of President Joe Biden guiding the economy “out of the teeth of a terrifying recession,” which caused incomes and demand to rise.
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “We are seeing supply chain disruption causing everything from higher prices to longer waits for products. Moody’s warns that these supply chain disruptions, quote, ‘will get worse before they get better, ‘ unquote. do Americans need to prepare ourselves for this to get worse before it gets better?”
Buttigieg said, “Certainly, a lot of the challenges that we have been experiencing this year will continue into next year. But there are both short-term and long-term steps that we can take to do something about it. Part of what’s happening isn’t just the supply side. It’s the demand side. Demand is off the charts. Retail sales are through the roof. If you think about those images of ships, for example, waiting at anchor on the west coast, every one of those ships is full of record amounts of goods that Americans are buying, because demand is up, because income is up, because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession. Now the issue is, even though our ports are handling more than they ever have, record amounts of goods coming through, our supply chains can’t keep up. Of course, our supply chains – that’s a complicated system that is mostly in private hands and rightly so. Our role is to be an honest broker, bring together all of the players, secure commitments, and get solutions that will make it easier.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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