Defiant Biden Pushes Back After GDP Report: ‘That Doesn’t Sound Like a Recession to Me!’
A defiant President Joe Biden pushed back after the quarterly GDP estimate showed .9 percent negative growth, ticking off positive indicators and concluding, “That doesn’t sound like a recession to me!”
On Thursday afternoon, the president spoke from the State Dining Room about the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — the reconciliation bill negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin.
Amid wrangling over the definition of a recession, President Biden also made a point of addressing Thursday’s GDP report, which showed -0.9% growth in the second quarter.
Biden again made the argument that positive economic indicators alongside the two negative quarters mean that the United States is not in a recession, and cited a litany of such indicators:
Let me speak to one other issue. Let me speak to one other issue, the GDP and whether or not we are in a recession. Both Chairman Powell and many of the significant banking personnel and economists say we’re not in recession.
But let me just give you what the facts are in terms of the state of the economy. Number one, we have a record job market of record unemployment of 3.6% today. We’ve created 9 million new jobs so far just since I became president.
Businesses are investing in America at record rates. At record rates. Foreign business, like S.K. and others are investing in America. Hundreds of millions, trillions of dollars, some totaling $100 billion in semiconductor investments already announced by Intel, Samsung and Texas Instruments.
More than 100 billion electric vehicle battery investments by Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Tesla, and more.
And just last week, as S.K. Corporation of the Republic of Korea announced some $22 billion in new investment in semiconductor batteries, chargers and medical devices created another 16,000 jobs here in America.
And this is probably the strongest rebound in American manufacturing in over three decades, creating 630,000 manufacturing jobs. Passing the Chips Bill is going to put another $72 billion for incentives and tax credits to expand semiconductor production. And the Inflation Reduction Act will add another $370 billion in clean energy tax credits in reconciliation, including incentives to accelerate domestic production of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and critical materials processing.
That doesn’t sound like a recession to me!
Watch above via AP Video.
