Thursday, in an interview on CNN's “Newsroom,” National Economic Council Director Brian Deese defended President Joe Biden's comments earlier in the day, asserting that Americans are paying higher costs in the face of an uncompromising Russian leader Vladimir Putin setting his sights on Ukraine.
Deese said Biden's comments were an assertion about the issue at stake, and described as the “future of the liberal world order.”
“What you heard from the president today was about the stakes,” the president said. “This will determine the direction of this liberal order in the world and we must remain firm. But at the same time, what I would advise that family members, to Americans across the nation, is that you're under the current administration, which will make every effort to stop these price increases and lower the prices. The good news is that over the past two weeks we've seen the pump fall by around 20 cents, however it's still outrageously high.”
“That's that's why our president prior to when he was in NATO and the G7 earlier in the week, was trying to bring the G7 allies around to an option to set a price limit that will limit the amount of money that could pay for Russian oil. This will focus the pain more specifically on Vladimir Putin and not on the rest of the world,” Deese continued. “It's why you've got the president calling for a temporary gasoline tax holiday. Not just at the national level, but states should follow his model and implement similar measures, too. That's why we're engaged with the oil industry, and encouraging them to expand quantity, and increase the availability of oil today.”
“And also increase that refinery capacity that we know those companies took offline during the pandemic,” He added. “We must bring more of those operational, in order to get greater gas flow into our system. Each of these steps aren't an all-purpose solution. However, you've got an administration that is working from every angle to maintain this price reduction that we're witnessing.”
