Christopher Phelan, a Trump nominee for White House Council of Economic Advisers was humiliated by Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday for his refusal to answer even the most basic of questions she asked on the state of inflation and wage growth.
Under Trump's leadership, inflation has skyrocketed, surpassing wage increases, but Trump's economic advisors, cabinet members and nominees all refuse to discuss the current living conditions Americans face right now and focus either on a promised future or during the COVID pandemic.
They are either blaming Biden from four years ago or using data that's 15 months old to hide the fact that Americans are much worse off today than they were when Trump took office.
Christopher Phelan refused to answer a question so simple and basic that it should disqualify him from being a nominee and the hearing should be ended.
"Right now," seems to have confused the nominee.
Watch this interaction and be amazed.
WARREN: 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?
PHELAN: There has been, since President Trump took office, weekly inflation-adjusted earnings are higher now than they were the day President Trump took office.
WARREN: The question I ask 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?
PHELAN: I do think it's important to have an appropriate time frame when considering anything like this.
WARREN: Now! That's your time frame.
PHELAN: An appropriate time frame is when President Trump took office.
WARREN: The question is, I just want a fact.
PHELAN: Inflation-adjusted wages are lower than they are now.
WARREN: If somebody says to you, today are families getting ahead or falling behind? You've got one word to answer that.
What's your word?
PHELAN: My word is, at.
WARREN: At, that's your word?
Warren became to frustrated with his non-responsive answers she lit into him.
WARREN: It is right now, families are falling behind.
And I gotta 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.
If you want to be confirmed in any position by Congress from the Trump administration, your only recourse is to lie, refuse to answer the question, or berate the questioner themselves.


