the people were wrong with the facts that they had. it s that things happened after that that affected the outcome. so we had not just delta, but omicron. we had gas prices at $3.31 january 17 when putin first started doing military exercises. neil: understood. with all due respect, let s put this graph up. while this was happening, wouldn t it have been wise at this point to shift your strategy because this is a really pretty clear chart at where things were going. with all due respect again, you guys are the folks that are elected and appointed to these positions. you re supposed to be the best figuring out what s coming around the bend. what you saw is that when delta hit, a lot of the different things that we were hoping and not just us, but literally every major forecaster in the world was predicting that
pandemic and the unprecedented shut down and starting up and the slowing down from delta, absolutely had an impact. the fact is still that on january 17 gas prices were not high by historical standards. they were below what real gas price levels were over the previous decade. when you talk about the run-up in gas, i don t think there should be any controversy anywhere partisan that is due to putin s invasion and our response to it. martha: they were though they did go higher since the inauguration based on a number of choices that were made to end leases, to end pipelines. disagree. martha: in the beginning the prices started to increase. i just disagree. you might have greater demand when you have stronger growth. president biden took a shaky recovery. we have had the strongest job
inflation was high before, certainly before the war in ukraine broke out. martha: senator john kennedy was in that hearing with jerome powell. he s here to react to that and respond to it in moments. first, we re glad to be joined by james spurling, senior adviser to president biden. thanks for making time for us today. what is your reaction to what jerome powell just said about the real driver of u.s. inflation? there was no contradiction at all with what president said and your tape of federal chairman powell. president biden is talking about what has happened with gas prices. on that, there s no controversy. on january 17, when putin starts doing military exercise in belarus, the price of gas is at $3.31 at the pump. that is actually below the average for real prices in the previous decade. after he does that, after that
at the same time the dollar is shrinking for consumers because of runaway inflation aired the president suggesting that the end is nowhere in sight. listen here. we cannot take immediate action on how to bring down the price of gasoline. we cannot do that immediately with regard to food prices either. john: i know you don t like to be in the forecasting business, but you are an economist and that is what economists do. what do you say to the american people about when gas prices will come down, when the price of household goods and food will come down. let me say a few things. number one, and understanding why gas prices have gone up, january 17, that is the day that putin moves troops to the border of belarus and ukraine.
certainly nobody in may was expecting that we were going to have this unthinkable aggression by russia in ukraine. just to remind people what the numbers were at that time, on january 17, when putin moved troops to the borders of belarus, gas prices are averaging $3.17 in the united states. they are now about $1.50 higher. that s $1.50 tax on american workers because of this unthinkable aggression by russia. i think what the secretary was saying was that nobody really foresaw these unforeseen events. i want to say, one of the reasons the american rescue plan was both strong but also allowed for the support to go to be over two to three years was to make sure that when we hit bumps