Ex-Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, told "The Cats Roundtable" radio show on WABC 770 AM, hosted by John Catsimatidis, that President Joe Biden cannot blame inflation on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The problem here," Kudlow says, "is that President Biden continues to blame inflation on Putin. Putin is not the cause of inflation. Inflation has been rising for over a year. And it's been rising because [of] … too much deficit spending by the federal government, and they've just done another $1.5 trillion bill, which is not paid for … The Federal Reserve keeps printing money and jamming new cash into the economy."
"If we stop the deficit spending, if we stop the money printing, we could conquer inflation," Kudlow adds.
"The President has to acknowledge that these issues exist. He's in complete denial about it … If you don't own the problem, you're not going to solve the problem. Therefore, I'm very concerned that this inflationary outburst and the shortage of fossil fuels … is not going to have a happy ending … This will lead to an inflationary recession. I don't buy into the soft-landing argument."
According to the New York Post, Biden on Thursday said Putin was to blame for the United States' current inflation hike.
"Today's inflation report is a reminder that Americans' budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin's price hike," Biden said just as the Labor Department announced that consumer prices, over a 12-month period, saw their highest year-ending increase since Jan. 1982.
"A large contributor to inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin's aggressive actions," the president added.
"As I have said from the start," Biden continued, "there will be costs at home as we impose crippling sanctions in response to Putin's unprovoked war, but Americans can know this: the costs we are imposing on Putin and his cronies are far more devastating than the costs we are facing."