James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:33 P.M. EDT
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Good afternoon, everyone.
Q Good afternoon.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I wanted to start with a word about the horrific news out of Lewiston, Maine, last night, where we saw another tragic shooting that has taken at least 18 lives, injured many others, and left countless people in grief, shock, and trauma.
As the President said in a statement earlier today, he and the First Lady are praying for the victims and their families; for those still fighting for their lives; and for the families, survivors, and community members reeling from this latest act of gun violence.
And, importantly, we continue to urge all residents to heed the warnings and guidance of the local officials and federal law enforcement who are on the ground to assist with the response.
During the state dinner last night, the President was informed and stepped out to receive an initial briefing of the shooting. Later, he stepped out to speak with Maine Governor Janet Mills, as well as Senators Collins and King, and Congressman Jared Golden. He pledged full federal support in the wake of this horrific tragedy.
This morning, the President received another briefing on the shooting from senior advisors, and he ordered that the U.S. flag be flown half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds out of respect for all the victims as well.
So, I want to echo the President's sentiments on this strategy — tragedy and the epidemic of gun violence in general. This is not normal. We cannot accept this. There have been literally hundreds of mass shootings in the last year alone, leaving empty seats at dinner tables across the county and leaving those who survive these heinous acts both physically and mentally scarred.
And while we have made progress since the President signed the Bipartisan Communities — Safer Communities Act into law, ma- — much more — much more must be done. And the President has been clear that executive action alone is just not enough.
As the President — as the Vice President, who oversees the newly established Office of Gun Violence and Prevention, stated during today's state luncheon — I'm s- — I know many of you watched very closely as well — and she said, "It does not…" — "It doesn't have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated."
Again, it does not have to be this way.
It's within Congress's power to pass legislation that will make our streets safer, that will make our communities safer, that will make our schools safer.
The House has a new Speaker who — who — who he said — he said he's ready to — to get to work and to find common ground. Now is the time. Now is the time to find common ground.
Let's work together to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Let's work together to enact universal background checks, require safe storage of guns, and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous individuals who have no business being armed with a weapon of war.
The President will continue to do everything in his power to protect the American people, to protect our communities, to protect our children. And we urge — we urge congressional Republicans to come to the table — to come to the table if there truly is common ground at this time.
With that, as you all know, I am joined today in the briefing room by the Director of the National Economic Council, Lael Bra- — Brainard, to discuss the GDP report that you all saw this morning and any other recent economic — economic news that's out there.
With that, Lael, welcome to the briefing room for the second time.
MS. BRAINARD: Well, we thought this might be a good moment to look back to this time last year and recall what the experts were saying about the U.S. economy. A year ago, the consensus view was that unemployment would need to go up to 4.5 percent and the economy would need to stall out in order to get inflation down to where it is today.
It turns out that was wrong, and you can see that here in the chart. U.S. growth has been much stronger than the naysayers believed, unemployment has remained below 4 percent this entire time, but inflation has actually fallen in line with that forecast.
In fact, today we learned that GDP grew by 4.9 percent in the third quarter, even as core PCE inflation on a quarterly basis fell to 2.4 percent — its lowest level in nearly three years.
That strong economy is a testament to the resilience of American consumers and American workers, supported by President Biden's plan to grow the economy by growing the middle class. Consumer spending is robust as Americans have rejoined the labor force in record numbers and real wages are up over the last year.
President Biden vowed to build the economy from the middle out and bottom up, and that is what we're seeing in the data.
Last week's Survey of Consumer Finances showed that in — Americans' median net worth is 37 percent higher than it was before the pandemic — adjusted for inflation. That's the largest gain in the history of the survey. And the wealth gains were strongest for the bottom half of the income distribution and for Blacks and Hispanic families that have traditionally not seen as large gains.
Just yesterday, the UAW and Ford reached a historic tentative agreement that provides a record increase for auto workers and is a testament to the President's strategy to ensure a strong future for auto manufacturing here in America with good, union jobs. That's good news for American workers and good news for the future of the U.S. auto industry.
So, in the data in that agreement, we can see that the President's strategy is yielding real results even as we continue to work to bring costs down.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Thank you.
Go ahead, Ed.
Q Thanks. So, I wanted — so, the President celebrated the GDP report, saying that it's a testament to the resilience of the American consumer. But the report also showed that personal savings dropped by $360 million.
Do you have a message to Americans who are dipping into those savings to afford the inflation?
MS. BRAINARD: Well, again, as I said, what you are seeing is: Americans are back in the labor force in record numbers, much higher participation than was anticipated, and higher than pre-pandemic. So, they're at work, and that is showing up also in the wealth number.
So, if you actually look at American households' median wealth in inflation-adjusted terms, it's actually gone up since before the pandemic. So, I think the U.S. consumer, U.S. workers, they are absolutely the reason that we're seeing this resilience in the economy, and they are actually seeing increase in their wealth over this period.
Q But what about a message to Americans who are dipping into savings to afford their lifestyle?
MS. BRAINARD: So, I think that, again, because net wealth is rising, because real incomes are rising, because Americans are working, that's exactly what we would want to see in the economy.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. Go ahead.
Q Are you no longer worried about a recession in the near term?
MS. BRAINARD: So, I think the data in recent months has all pointed in the same direction, which is that we are seeing strong ongoing growth with inflation coming down. We're seeing unemployment staying below 4 percent 20 months in a row now, with inflation coming down.
And so, those data, which have been sustained now for a relatively long period of time, suggest that there's ongoing resilience there.
We're seeing small-business formation at a record rate. There's a lot of dynamism in the economy that people are really taking notice of.
And you know that the President has a historic legislation that is leading to historically high amounts of construction in the manufacturing sector. It's really leveraging private sector investments.
So, for all those reasons, the ability to see the economy continue growing with inflation down — strongest growth, lowest inflation among the G7.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Jon.
Q Thanks a lot. Since this GDP number was released, student loan repayments have begun for tens of millions of Americans. Is this a headwind that you see in the U.S. economy for Q4? What other headwinds do you see for the rest of the year?
MS. BRAINARD: Yeah, so, the consumer was very strong in the third quarter, and we believe that — based on the strong job market, that we can continue to see resilience there. But the President has always said that he would like to see student debt relief go forward. He's continuing to look to find avenues to do that in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
We've already announced a number of programs that have led to large and significant relief for a large number of Americans. But he's going to continue working to make sure that the full amount of student debt relief is available over time.
Q And then what other headwinds do you see for the fourth quarter?
MS. BRAINARD: So, right now, what we see going into the fourth quarter is continued ongoing investment on the basis of the clean energy tax credits and the CHIPS program, the infrastructure law. So, there should continue to be a lot of private sector interest. We certainly see it in the numbers — $614 billion worth of private sector investment on the basis of those laws.
So, those things, I think, will continue to provide uplift for the global economy. Little — there's some soft spots there, so perhaps a little headwind there.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Last question. Go ahead, Karen.
