CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan grilled JD Vance on the economy as he failed to pick out an executive order that had an immediate effect on grocery prices.
The vice-president appeared to struggle before Brennan as she claimed most of the executive orders made by Donald Trump this week did not relate to the economy.
“You campaigned on lowering prices for consumers. We’ve seen all of these executive orders. Which one lowers prices?” Brennan asked in direct terms.
“We have done a lot, and there have been a number of executive orders that have already caused jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices,” Vance said without explaining what exactly the Trump administration had done in its first week.
“More capital investment, more job creation in our economy is one of the things that’s going to drive down prices for all consumers, but also raise wages so that people can afford to buy the things that they need,” he continued.
“So future prices aren’t going to come down?,” Brennan interrupted.
“Margaret, prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time, right?” Vance said. “The president has been president for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he’s accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years. It’s been an incredible breakneck pace of activity. We’re going to work with Congress, we’re of course going to have more executive orders and we’re going to try. The way that your lower prices, is that you encourage more capital investment into our country.”
Brennan snapped back to hold Vance to account on Trump’s campaign trail, during which the price of eggs became a key election issue.
“But the price of eggs,” she said. “Those things- when do consumers actually get to touch and feel a difference in their lives? The flurry of executive orders, most of them weren’t about the economy.”
“Many of them were, though, Margaret,” Vance said.
But in direct conflict with Vance’s promises – and Brennan’s line of questioning – experts and leading economists have historically warned against the effects of grocery price decreases on a national economy.
Deflation was one of the main features of the Great Depression in the 1930s, one of the worst economic disasters in history which saw millions of people lose their jobs.
The chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has repeatedly warned against low inflation rates and deflation, with the government agency setting its inflation rate aim at around 2%.
The latest data for America showed prices rising at a rate of around 2.9%.
