MSNBC senior business correspondent and The 11th Hour host Stephanie Ruhle appeared on MSNBC Reports on Friday to absolve President Biden of any blame for high gas prices and to enthusiastically endorse tax increases as the solution.
After Biden gave a speech on the March jobs report, host Joe Fryer asked Ruhle to provide a reality check. After declaring the jobs figure to be “really good,” Ruhle added that the problem is “when you look at wage growth, where you’re seeing wages go up the most, it's higher wage jobs, it’s white collar jobs and the fact of the matter is people with white collar jobs saved up during the pandemic. We might not like to pay more money at the gas tank or the grocery store, but we can afford to and it’s people on the lower end of the economic spectrum that are really struggling here.”
When it comes to fixing the problem of pain at the pump, Ruhle declared Biden to be a simple bystander, “this is a challenge for the president, I’m going to just say why, and this ties back to markets: he doesn't control the economy.”
Ruhle’s belief on whether or not Biden is responsible for the economy seems to change daily, based on whether or not Biden can spin it as a win. On the issue of gas prices, the problem is not Biden’s energy policies, but greedy corporations:
You saw the president yesterday using his bully pulpit to push U.S. oil and gas companies but the thing is, he's not their boss. The CEO of an oil and gas company, his or her boss is their shareholders and shareholders, they like high prices. They want buybacks, they want dividends, I might not like that, you might not like that, but that's how it goes. So, when the president is complaining, rightfully so, about people paying their fair share and businesses doing the right thing, the issue is they’re following the current letter of the law and if you don't like it, it's incumbent on Congress to change that.
Fryer then asked about Biden’s latest tax proposal, “And we just heard the president talking again about his billionaire tax plan, pushing that, saying he wants them to pay their fair share and to which you say?”
Ruhle enthusiastically supported the idea while lamenting that it won’t become a reality:
Great, make them do it. Change the rules. Those billionaires, I agree. Why aren't they playing more? And the reason they're not paying more is because they're currently abiding by the law. So close those loopholes, but when it comes time to do that, guess who donates big dollars to politicians on both sides of the aisle? Really rich people and corporations.
Joe Biden has a lot of really bad ideas, but taxing money that doesn’t actually exist, only to have those taxes passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices, has to be one of his worst, so of course, Ruhle supports it.
This segment was sponsored by Progressive.
Here is a transcript for the April 1 show:
MSNBC Reports
4/1/2022
11:07 AM ET
JOE FRYER: Alright, let’s bring Stephanie in here, you talk all the time main street versus Wall Street. This job report shows we're getting back, we’re pretty darn close to life before the pandemic, but it doesn't feel that way for a lot of Americans right now. I mean, what’s—what’s-- the reality check right now on this jobs report and where we are right now?
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Listen, it's a really good jobs report. If we stay at this pace at the end of this year, we're going to be at pre-pandemic levels in terms of employment, that’s really good news. One of the issues when you look at wage growth, where you’re seeing wages go up the most, it's higher wage jobs, it’s white collar jobs and the fact of the matter is people with white collar jobs saved up during the pandemic. We might not like to pay more money at the gas tank or the grocery store, but we can afford to and it’s people on the lower end of the economic spectrum that are really struggling here and this is a challenge for the president, I’m going to just say why, and this ties back to markets: he doesn't control the economy.
You saw the president yesterday using his bully pulpit to push U.S. oil and gas companies but the thing is, he's not their boss. The CEO of an oil and gas company, his or her boss is their shareholders and shareholders, they like high prices. They want buybacks, they want dividends, I might not like that, you might not like that, but that's how it goes.
So, when the president is complaining, rightfully so, about people paying their fair share and businesses doing the right thing, the issue is they’re following the current letter of the law and if you don't like it, it's incumbent on Congress to change that.
FRYER: And we just heard the president talking again about his billionaire tax plan, pushing that, saying he wants them to pay their fair share and to which you say?
RUHLE: Great, make them do it. Change the rules. Those billionaires, I agree. Why aren't they playing more? And the reason they're not paying more is because they're currently abiding by the law. So close those loopholes, but when it comes time to do that, guess who donates big dollars to politicians on both sides of the aisle? Really rich people and corporations.
