A top White House economist said Monday that he doesn't understand how economists in the Obama administration believe that some of former President Barack Obama's policies would help create jobs.

Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett said that, while it's not fair to blame Obama for the Great Recession, several of Obama's policies stunted growth.

"I think the Affordable Care Act ... lifted marginal tax rates on individual workers, so much so that the CBO even said that it would have a negative effect on growth," Hassett told reporters at the White House, referring to the Congressional Budget Office.

"He increased marginal tax rates on small businesses, and that's why small business creation wasn't so high," Hassett said.

"I think he also advocated policies that he said would help growth, that clearly did not and really, you know, I kind of wonder about what was going on in the heads of the economists that told him they would, like Cash for Clunkers and so on, that really didn't have much effect at all," he added.

"But to, you know, say he destroyed the economy or something like that, that's not something the CEA chair should be doing," Hassett said.

Hassett said he prefers to blame policies, not people, for economic performance, but did credit Trump's policies for creating an economic surge that quickly led to job growth.

He said historians looking back will "100 percent accept the fact" that the economy improved soon after Trump's election, which had a lot to do with his first year in office.

"You don't have to really reach far for a theory of want happened," he said. "President Trump deregulated the economy. ... The tax cuts have had exactly the predicted effect on the economy."