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‘Doesn’t sound like a recession to me’: ‘Fact-checkers’ back Biden slight of hand economy

July 29, 2022 | | Print Article

President Biden responded to all the talk of a recession to insist that there could be nothing further from the truth, pointing to “record unemployment” and saying businesses “are investing in America at record rates,” while boasting about the “strongest rebound in American manufacturing in over three decades” — much of this being the result of America getting back to work after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adding to the sleight of hand, the president also pointed to the bill Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) reached an agreement on with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday that will spend a massive amount of money — $369 billion — to “combat” climate change and features a substantial tax increase for corporations. A bill Democrats claim will reduce the deficit by $300 billion.

“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,” Biden said from the White House.

“That doesn’t sound like a recession to me. Thank you very much, he added, before quickly walking away without taking any questions.

There’s plenty of talk suddenly about the definition of a recession after the U.S. gross domestic product shrank for the second consecutive quarter.

For the rest of the world — and any Republican administration — that would be a recession, but the Biden White House apparently plays by its own set of rules.

From The Hill: “Two straight quarters of negative economic growth have long been used as a rule of thumb to determine when the U.S. is in recession and is the formal threshold for a recession in other countries. But economists in the U.S. consider a broader range of data when determining if the U.S. is in recession.”

But with the Orwellian fact-checkers and Big Tech in their corner, the administration can afford to play fast and loose with the facts.

As seen below, Facebook is falling back on a PolitiFact false ruling to tag accounts claiming that Team Biden redefined the meaning of a recession in an attempt to control language.

Of course, when Biden made unfounded claims about a recession under his predecessor, President Donald Trump, the fact-checkers couldn’t be bothered to intervene.

The reaction to the White House smoke and mirrors shows why so few believe anything Democrats and their media allies have to say. Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:

Tom Tillison
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