Americans plagued by persistently high prices are finally getting signs of relief as inflation has slowly but steadily cooled over the past year — but that’s no thanks to President Joe Biden, according to Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie.
“Inflation has started to recede, I think almost exclusively because of [Federal Reserve] policy,” Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Last Call.”
“We certainly don’t see any spending cuts by the Biden administration, and they’re still printing a lot of free money,” Christie said.
The Fed is not entirely blameless, he said. “They may have waited too long to do what they’re doing with rates, and therefore need to raise them faster,” Christie said, “and I would be critical of that.”
But Biden and his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, both deserve a large share of the blame for their spending sprees, the former governor said.
“Ultimately, it comes down to Joe Biden and his spending and Donald Trump and his spending during his time in the White House,” said Christie, whose primary presidential campaign was aggressively critical of Trump.
The Biden administration has put its inflation-fighting efforts front and center in its first term in office. He championed a sweeping spending bill in 2022 called the Inflation Reduction Act and has taken credit for easing the inflation rate since its passage.
But recent polls show that a majority of registered voters disapprove of how Biden is handling the economy and inflation in particular, exposing a major vulnerability as he seeks re-election in 2024.
Christie, campaigning for his candidacy on CNBC, has vowed to curb federal spending, which he says is the root of the US inflation problem.
Fed policymakers, in turn, will start lowering rates when they see that the executive branch isn’t burning through trillions of dollars in deficit spending each year, he said.
“I’m willing to say no to more federal spending,” Christie said.
He also would not say whether he would reappoint Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May 2026. “It depends on how he does from here,” Christie said.
