During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “11th Hour,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that people are unhappy with their personal finances because “the cost of living is very high.” But that’s been the case “for a long time. But the inflation that we saw after the pandemic really exacerbated it for so many people.”
Host Stephanie Ruhle asked, “By most major measures, the economy is doing very well. Yet, most people in America, many people in America still don’t feel good about their personal finances. What do we do about that, how do we solve for it?”
Yellen answered, “Well, I think the cost of living is very high. This has really been true for a long time. But the inflation that we saw after the pandemic really exacerbated it for so many people. But it’s been building for a long time, the high cost of housing, of child care, of health care, many middle-class families who are just making it, finding it very hard to make ends meet. And so, it really is the top priority of the Biden-Harris administration to find ways to bring down costs. And we’ve done that in health care. The cost of insulin for seniors has been capped. Healthcare premiums have been kept down. We’re finding ways to let Medicare negotiate for drug prices, saves the government money, saves families a lot of money. Energy, we’re supporting the development of clean energy, which will make us much less subject to the ups and downs of global markets when a dictator like Putin invades Ukraine and it causes oil prices to spike, as we become more reliant on renewables, and that will be spurred by the trillions of — or hundreds of billions of dollars of investment that have been stimulated by the Inflation Reduction Act, the tax incentives there. … And housing, the president has proposed building 2 million additional homes and supporting first-time homebuyers –.”
Ruhle then cut in to say that that’s a proposal and ask Yellen if she wishes the Biden administration did more sooner on housing.
Yellen responded, “Well, it will take a while to solve this, and it does require, I think, increasing the supply of housing. So, I’m sorry that Congress hasn’t acted on proposals that the president made early on. Of course, higher interest rates have also raised mortgage rates and house prices went up during the pandemic. And so, for first-time homebuyers, it’s a difficult time. But, over time, it’s important to address this, and the administration is focused on doing that.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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