Warren Grills Trump's Nominee for Chair of The Council of Economic Advisers

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Dr. Phelan, if you are confirmed, your job would be to advise President Trump on economic policy. The Council of Economic Advisers is, quote, charged with offering the President objective economic advice, not political advice, objective economic advice. So let's go through a few objective facts. Americans are spending more on everything from gas to groceries. Prices are rising faster than paychecks. And Trump's one big, beautiful bill rips away health care coverage for 15 million people in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations. And it adds $4.7 trillion to the national debt. And that is why we need someone who will tell the truth about the economy and not just say whatever it is the President wants them to say. So you have a PhD in economics from a very prestigious university. You've been a professor for nearly 30 years. You've taught thousands of students by this point. On paper, you look like someone who should be able to provide objective advice. So I have some questions. And quite frankly, I hope they are really easy questions for you. President Trump promised to bring prices down on, quote, day one. Is headline inflation higher today than it was in February 2025? Thank you, Senator. Headline inflation now is certainly lower than it was during the Biden I'm sorry. Come on. Let's not play this game. You heard my question. President Trump was sworn in in January 2025 under the promise he would lower costs on day one. The question I'm asking is, is inflation headline inflation today higher than it was in February 2025? It's a fact question. Thank you, Senator. There is a reason economists tend to focus on core inflation, and that is because food and energy is quite volatile. Okay. Core inflation is lower than when President Trump took office. We'll do core. Can you give me the answer on headline inflation? I don't want to know how fast you can dance. I want to know if you can answer simple, factual questions. That's all I'm looking for here. Thank you, Ranking Member. I do not know exactly what the headline inflation was on January 20th. 2.8%. So answer the question. Is headline inflation higher today than it was in February 2025? Headline inflation now, the last one was year over year 4.2%. Okay. So is 4.2% higher than 2.8%? Ranking Member, yes, it is. Oh, wow. Was that so hard? You're going to be the guy called on to give real facts. So let me try another one. Dr. Phelan, is annual inflation higher than wage growth today? Thank you, Ranking Member. There has been, since President Trump took office, weekly inflation-adjusted earnings are higher now than they were the day President Trump took office. The question I asked you, is inflation higher than wage growth right now? In other words, even if families are getting raises, on average, are they falling behind because of inflation? Thank you, Ranking Member. I do think it's important to have an appropriate time frame when considering anything like this. Now, that's your time frame. The appropriate time frame is when President Trump took office. The question is, I just want a fact. Inflation-adjusted wages lower than they are now. Today, are families getting ahead or falling behind? You got one word to answer that. What's your word? My word is at. Real wages are higher now. Real wages are higher now than they were at the beginning of the Trump administration. You've already told me inflation is 4.2%, right? What's the annual wage growth right now? It's just a fact question. Thank you, Senator. I do not have that in front of me right now. It's 3.4%. Let's put this one together. Is 4.2 higher than 3.4? I will repeat what I said, which is real wage growth in this administration is positive. Right now, families are falling behind. I got to say, I can keep this one up. Fact after fact, but you have now made clear what your position is, and that is you can't even do the basic facts. I didn't even get to the hard questions here about what this means. I just want to start with what the facts are. These are facts that come out of the Trump administration. They're there for anybody to see, and you can't bring yourself as the person who sits there and says, I want to be the head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Oh, I'm sorry, to give objective economic advice, and you can't even say, yeah, inflation is running higher than wages, right? And we're still going to try to keep it on behalf of the chairman to five minutes. Fair enough. I think this person has disqualified himself in five minutes.