MSNBC’s The ReidOut host Joy Reid decided on Wednesday to channel NBC chief business correspondent and MSNBC colleague Stephanie Ruhle in dismissing the economic pain Americans are facing amid rising inflation, calling it a “buzzword bandwagon” by Republicans who “want you to believe the economy isn't doing well” when it’s “not bad” and people “are also spending a record amount of money.”
And with chyrons such as “GOP Using Inflation to Their Political Advantage” and “Dems Push Back Against False Narratives on the Economy,” Reid even cited a tweet from White House Chief of Staff and Twitter resident Ron Klain to back up her rosy outlook.
“Republicans jump on the inflation buzzword bandwagon, ignoring all the signs of America's economic comeback. Senator Elizabeth Warren joins me next with the truth about our economy,” she said in the second of two teases.
Reid kept up the snark before bringing in Warren: “Republicans want you to believe the economy isn't doing well, that's terrible. But, in reality, unemployment is at its lowest point since before the pandemic began.”
Incredibly, Reid then defended inflation, saying what while “[p]rices are higher” and while that’s “never good,” it’s fine because “Americans are also spending a record amount of money that was pent up during the pandemic, which economics 101 will tell you drives prices up, aka inflation.”
In turn, she said the problem has boiled down to the stubbornness of American consumers: “[T]hat conflict between how much we want to spend and what we can get into our hands quickly is contributing to how pessimistic many Americans feel about the economy. Consumer confidence is its lowest in a decade[.]”
Kvetching Biden’s poll numbers have fallen “because Republicans are seizing on inflation” despite “max[ing] out the national credit card on tax cuts for the super-rich” and the wall, Reid touted this Klain tweet as “good news” before again whining: “So — so, the economy isn't bad. It’s just that people are mad because everything is late and things cost a little bit more.”
Warren explained the way to truly improve the economy is by passing the Build Back Better agenda, which Reid agreed with because anything and everything Republicans are saying about the economy has to be false: “[T]he reality is as you've said, you know, what they say has nothing to do with reality because they want to get back in power[.]”
The two went on to trot out the tiresome excuse of the supply chain being in crisis due to a lack of affordable (read: free) child care (click “expand”):
REID: [H]ere’s the thing. People are frustrated because of the supply chain issues, meaning you order some stuff online, you order a couch and it takes, like, 12 weeks to get there, but the things that are making it hard for people to work in the jobs where they ship stuff to you, you know, the people who, you know, work in shipping, the people that work as clerks, the people that work driving trucks but especially, as you said, the people that work in the jobs that are part of that supply chain that are women, they're not going back to work cause they can't afford the child care. They not [sic] going back to work. The things that you could actually do to get people back to work to fix the supply chain if you pass that bill.
WARREN: That's right. You know, all these small businesses that say they need those workers, then let's get Build Back Better done so that we're really creating the infrastructure so we've got the child care so those mamas in particular can go back to work and by the way, while we're at it, let's raise the wages of every child care worker and preschool teacher in America. Let's make those jobs the way we made construction jobs two generations ago good middle class jobs, let's do the same thing in the care-giving industry. You want to talk about something that's good for families and that's good for our economy overall, and this time, instead of being predominantly men's jobs, let do it because these are women's jobs —
REID: Yep.
WARREN: — and mostly women of color. Let’s — let’s make that investment as a nation. Let’s lift up those families.
The pair ended on the subject of expunging marijuana convictions, but not before Reid peddled the insanity that the rise in gas prices has been due to nefarious behavior from oil companies to thumb their noses at the Biden administration’s Build Back Better agenda:
[A] lot of people are upset about gas prices but people weren't driving for a year and, somehow, gas prices still went up. There have been some calls to investigate these oil companies because also, they don't really like Build Back Better either because it deals with their issues on the environment but how is it when people stay home for a year, suddenly, the price of gas went up?
Just as we saw under the Obama administration, the liberal media often decide that some (if not all) of the problems that have befallen Biden aren’t of his making. Rather, they’re instances where he’s a victim of happenstance.
Exit question: If the economy’s in such great shape, then why was Joy complaining about gas prices?
Reid’s partisan dismissal of economic pain faced by Americans was made possible thanks to the endorsement of advertisers such as Ancestry, Applebee’s, and Fidelity. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from November 17, click here.
