By John Ikani
US President, Joe Biden has publicly denounced Liz Truss’s economic plan as a “mistake,” adding that he wasn’t surprised she had to reverse course.
“It was predictable; I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a mistake,” Biden told reporters on Saturday.
“The idea of cutting taxes for the super-wealthy, I disagree with that policy. But it’s up to Britain to make that judgement, not me.”
Truss, who leads the UK’s centre-right Conservative Party, proposed sweeping tax cuts to the tune of £45 billion (around $50 billion) that would have been largely funded by borrowing.
The moves would have benefited the UK’s wealthiest people by cutting the top rate of income tax, in a prime example of “trickle-down economics” that Biden has criticised in the past.
While the government suggested the cuts would stimulate the economy, they sent financial markets into turmoil. The pound fell to record lows against the dollar, while the Bank of England was forced into an emergency bond-buying.
As part of efforts to cling on to power in the wake of plunging popularity among both the public and her own party. Ms Truss on Friday sacked her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the wake of his mini-Budget, which outlined aggressive tax cuts without identifying any cost savings.
Conservative donors and business leaders have turned against her, while some of her senior MPs are reportedly plotting to oust her.
Jeremy Hunt, who has been appointed the new chancellor, has swiftly ditched many of the government’s economic policies.
The White House has previously refrained from commenting on Ms Truss’s troubled first weeks as PM and the impact of her economic policies on the dollar, which set a new record against the pound this week.
The strength of the dollar benefits US imports but makes the country’s exports more expensive to the rest of the world.
Mr Biden said the US economy was “strong as hell” but “the problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries”.
