JON KARL, ABC NEWS: I mean, the president often says that prices have come down. Obviously, they haven’t. We don’t have deflation in — I mean, there are some — HASSETT: Gasoline. KARL: Gasoline, yeah. But let’s take a look at some of the goods that we buy, you know, regularly, in our household. Let’s take a look at this. Coffee, as you mentioned, up 15 percent. Uncooked ground beef up 14 percent. Bananas up eight percent. Fresh cakes and cupcakes up six percent. Lettuce up almost six percent. Lunch meat, salad, dressings, tomatoes, all up, you know, well more than that, 2-1/2 percent. I mean, Americans are clearly feeling that prices are continuing to go up, and in many — with many of the goods that they buy regularly, they are going up. HASSETT: Well, again — KARL: And more — I mean by significant numbers. HASSETT: Let’s look at it. First of all, when we came in, the very first thing that all of you folks were talking to us about was egg prices. KARL: Yeah. HASSETT: And egg prices are down year-over-year. You could have put that in your chart right there. But — and but the fact is when we had almost 10 percent inflation in the — (CROSSTALK) KARL: I mean, that wasn’t about economic factors. That was bird flu, with the egg prices just to be clear. HASSETT: Oh, but the meat prices problem is we’ve shut the border from Mexico because of an infestation in Mexico. So, there are a bunch of things like that that are targeted problems. And also, so you have lunch meats and meats, but the meats are coming slower from Mexico because there’s a pest infestation there. But the bottom line is, if you want to control inflation, you got to not spend like a drunken sailor. We’re — if you want the macroeconomics of it, we’re reducing the deficit this year. So far this year in the calendar year, it’s dropped by almost $ 400 billion. And that $ 400 billion is probably going to be about $ 600 billion reduction in deficit this year. That’s the kind of — that takes the pressure off the price of everything. KARL: It’s still a mighty large deficit. So, the president claims that Thanksgiving costs are down 25 percent. I mean, does he know that’s not true? HASSETT: Well, if you look at Walmart and the few places that put out their prices, Thanksgiving prices — KARL: Wait — wait a minute, I got to stop because the Walmart comparison’s like not a thing — I mean, Walmart had a Thanksgiving package last year. They’ve got a Thanksgiving package this year. The one this year contains much less than what the one last year it took. So that’s why the price is less. Look, we got a chart here. Last year, it — with 21 total products. This year, it’s 15. Total number of items in those projects was — products was 29 percent, now — 29, now, it’s 22. There’s more generic brand stuff. So, I mean, Thanksgiving — if you’re going to the store to buy groceries for Thanksgiving, it’s going to be more expensive this year. HASSETT: You know, I really don’t — don’t understand where you’re going in the sense that Joe Biden gave us — KARL: Really? HASSETT: — Joe Biden gave us 20 percent. KARL: He’s not president. Donald Trump’s president. HASSETT: No, and you’re — you want us to fix the hole that Joe Biden caused right away. HASSETT: No, you want us to fix the hole that Joe Biden dug right away. KARL: No, I’m saying, why does the president tell — HASSETT: I mean, the prices went up so much under Joe Biden, and inflation is way down. Inflation is about half what it was in December. This is something that’s being fixed fast and real incomes are up after dropping about 3,000 under Joe Biden. And so, sure, you could find a few things where the prices is higher, but there’s a whole bunch of stuff where the price is lower, like gasoline, like mortgage rates. KARL: We’re (ph) going to get the Republican plan to do — HASSETT: You understand that mortgage rates have gone way down, and it’s much cheaper to buy a home now than it was when– KARL: Because interest rates have come down, right? HASSETT: Yeah.
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