Truss Plans to Make a ‘Mistake’ Amid ‘Global Inflation’

PORTLAND, Oregon (Associated Press) – President Joe Biden on Saturday called for the tax cut plan that British Prime Minister Liz Truss had halted. “Wrong,” and said he was concerned that other countries’ fiscal policies could harm the United States amid “global inflation.”

Biden said it was “expected” that the new prime minister on Friday will backtrack on plans to cut taxes sharply without specifying cost cuts after Truss’ proposal sparked turmoil in global financial markets. It was an extraordinary critique by an American president of the domestic policy decisions of one of his closest allies.

“I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a mistake,” Biden said. I don’t agree with the policy, but it’s up to Britain.”

Biden’s comments came weeks after White House officials refused to criticize Truss’s plans, though they emphasized that they were watching the economic fallout closely. He spoke to reporters at an ice cream parlor in Oregon, where he stopped abruptly to promote the Democratic nomination for Governor Tina Kotik.

Biden said he’s not worried about the dollar’s strength – it hit a new all-time high against the British pound in recent weeks – which is good for US imports but makes the country’s exports more expensive for the rest of the world.

The president said the US economy is “strong as hell”.

“I worry about the rest of the world,” he added. “The problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policies in other countries.”

“It’s global inflation, it’s dependency,” Biden said.