On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by CNN’s Chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins about how the administration is defining a recession during a testy press briefing.
Last week on Thursday, the White House put out a statement saying that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) showed that the economy is showing “strong growth” after the pandemic. KJP said that the administration is will use the NBER report to clarify if they are in a recession or not. The reporter called that statement out saying that NBER was 12-months late in declaring a recession during 2008.
The exchange can be seen at the 47-minute mark.
“I’m not going to define it from here, I’m just going to leave it to the NBER as we have stated and how they define recession,” Jean-Pierre said.
“You won’t declare one until they have declared one, is that what you’re saying?” Collins asked.
“I’m just saying that we’re just not going to define it, we use the indicators that the NBER, the National Bureau of Economic Research, have used,” Biden’s press secretary said.
She then said that the nation’s labor market growth atypical for a recession, but likely attributed it to the rebound from the pandemic.
“That does not define a recession, and so that’s what we point you to, that’s what we’re looking at how the economy is currently in this moment,” KJP continued. “The reason why is because of the work that this president has done. Because of the American Rescue Plan and turning back on an economy that was in crisis when he walked in.”
“I just want to be clear, though, so we’re not going to hear the White House say that if there is a recession, that there is one until the National Bureau of Economic Research has declared it one?” Collins asked.
“What I’m saying is that the technical definition … is the National Bureau of Economic Research that looks at a broad range of data on deciding whether or not there is a recession and most of that data they look at right now continues to be strong,” KJP said.
Another reporter grilled KJP on the recession and she responded by obfuscating the definition of a recession.
The official report by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will be released to show the second quarter of GDP growth in 2022 on Thursday. This is the report that officially shows whether America is facing positive or negative growth and is generally used to indicate whether the country is in a recession. Most business leaders and the stock market have already made moves signaling that one is incoming.
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A recent CNN poll showed that 64 percent of Americans already think the country is in a recession. The poll was taken on July 13 and has a 3.3 percent margin of error.
Most Americans already think the country is in a recession and are fighting for their families and their lives. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is attempting to change the definition of a recession to make themselves look better. It’s not going to work because people are seeing the signs of one in their daily lives. We hope that Biden is right that we are not going into one for all of our sakes, but the gaslighting has got to stop. Do you think we are in a recession already? Let us know below.
