CNN White House reporter Jim Acosta said income inequality has increased under President Obama despite his repeated rhetoric against it, to the protests of press secretary Jay Carney, during Thursday's briefing.
Obama spoke before the liberal Center for American Progress Wednesday about the need for greater redistribution. Carney said "that work is not done" but the data supported his claims that Obama had gone "right at this issue." He also assigned blame to the income gap and sluggish economic recovery to the Bush administration, out of office since January 2009.
"There's no question that when he took office, that job for all of us in Washington and for everyone's who concerned about this issue was made enormously more difficult by the worst economy that we've seen in our lifetime, the result of, in part, some truly poor policy decisions that had been made in the previous administration," he said.
Full exchange:
JIM ACOSTA: I think part of his speech yesterday was about income inequality. I mean, he said this is one of the driving motivations for the remainder of his presidency. But that disparity has been exacerbated as he's been in office.
JAY CARNEY: No, to the contrary. I think -- I'm sure you were here -- you saw that for the first time in decades, because of the president, we reduced unfairness in the tax code and addressed the imbalance through the deal at the end of last year, or January 1st of this year.
ACOSTA: All I'm saying, Wall Street is feeling the benefits of this recovery, and as it stands right now, people on the streets right now are protesting because they want a higher minimum wage because they are saying they're not feeling it.
CARNEY: Jim, I really urge you to look at the president's speech, look at the data. The fact is the president has long supported policies and continues to support policies and has taken action on policies that go right at this issue. That work is not done, and there's no question that when he took office, that job for all of us in Washington and for everyone's who concerned about this issue was made enormously more difficult by the worst economy that we've seen in our lifetime, the result of, in part, some truly poor policy decisions that had been made in the previous administration.