It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC.

I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom.

Happy Friday, everybody.

I'm filling in for Brian today. He'll be back on Monday.

Later in the show, we'll hear an update on the now quite late New York State Budget with WNYC's

Albany reporter John Campbell. Then we'll ask for reactions from Catholic listeners on a new report

from the Vatican that decries war, poverty, and the struggles of migrants, but also

gender theory and surrogacy. We'll want to hear from you, especially if you or a family

member identifies as Catholic and LGBTQ. And we'll send you into Friday afternoon with a conversation

on the Black Roots of Country country music inspired, of course,

by Beyonce. We'll play some country music and talk about the country music industry and the

history of black musicians in country. But first, for President Biden, the economy giveth and the

economy taketh away. Last Friday's job growth numbers exceeded

expectations by a large margin, but Wednesday's inflation report did two. Here's how former

President Trump characterized that report as he got off a plane, so there's a little background

noise. Biden has totally lost control of inflation. It's back. It's raging back. The number today was

very high, very bad. It's actually much higher because they've stood various categories.

And in case you missed that, he said Biden has totally lost control of inflation. It is raging back.

President Biden, for his part, had a different view.

We have dramatically reduced inflation from 9% down to close to 3%. We're in a situation where

we're a better situated than we were when we took office, where inflation was skyrocketing.

And we have a plan to deal with it, whereas the opposition,

...