President Joe Biden grew defensive at the White House on Thursday after insisting the United States economy is not experiencing a recession on his watch.
“That doesn’t sound like a recession to me,” he said after reading a list of positive economic news off of his notecard.
The president spoke about the idea of a recession after the GDP numbers released Thursday showed the economy shrunk 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022.
He pivoted to positive economic news.
Biden pointed to “record” low unemployment rates of 3.6 percent and business investments in America at “record” rates.
He also pointed to investments in electric battery production and semiconductor chips as evidence the economy is not experiencing a recession.
The president also claimed that Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the economy was not currently in a recession, which was a slight exaggeration of what the chairman actually said.
“It doesn’t make sense that the economy would be in recession,” Powell said on Wednesday after announcing another hike in interest rates to try to cool inflation.
The president also claimed a new Senate Democrat proposal to spend $370 billion to subsidize the wind and solar power industry, as well as the electric car industry, would only help the economy grow further.
He described the new spending agreement as “a big deal” and urged Congress to pass it, despite its goal of raising taxes and $430 billion in new spending
“Pass it,” he said, referring to the bill. “Pass it for the American people. Pass it for America.
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