WASHINGTON, DC – On July 27th, Fox News’ Peter Doocy took White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to task over the current administration’s efforts to conveniently change the definition of “recession” in order to convince Americans that one isn’t currently transpiring.

According to a report from CNBC, gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.9% this past quarter, following a 1.6% decline that occurred during the first quarter of 2022, which even CNBC admits that a back-to-back GDP decline amid quarters renders “a widely accepted rule of thumb for a recession.”

During the White House press briefing from July 27th, Doocy brought up how the Biden administration is continually repeating that we’re not in a recession, asking, “If things are going so great though, then why is it that White House officials are trying to redefine recession?”

White House press secretary Jean-Pierre shot back with, “No, we’re not redefining recessions.”

Doocy had then cited how the recession has been traditionally understood with respect to back-to-back negative GDP, asking, “If we all understand a recession to be two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth in a row, and then you have White House officials come up here to say, ‘No, no, no, that’s not what a recession is, it’s something else,’ how is that not redefining recession?”

Again, Jean-Pierre stood by her previous assertion, saying, “Because that’s not the definition.”

Doocy fired back, using the words of Biden’s director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, as evidence of this effort to change the definition of what a recession is.

“Brian Deese said in 2008, ‘Of course economists have a technical definition…of a recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.’ And then yesterday, he said, ‘Two negative quarters of GDP growth is not the technical definition of a recession.’ What changed?”

Yet still, Jean-Pierre continued to parrot the talking point that a recession isn’t defined by two negative GDP growth quarters, despite being confronted with the hypocrisy of the administration’s own economic advisor.

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Rick Santelli of CNBC also had some words regarding the state of the economy, saying, “Oh my gosh,” when seeing GDP fell 0.9% this past quarter.

“But here we go, I see jobless claims at 256,000 that’s up 5,000 from – oh my gosh! Boy, not only was I wrong, down nine-tenths of 1% on first look at second quarter GDP. Okay, I know there’s an organization that decides whether we’re in a recession or not, but investors, they’re going to wait. Two back-to-back negative quarters – it’s not good. Call it whatever you want.”

The “organization” that Santelli was referring to that officially declares whether or not a recession is in effect is the National Bureau of Economic Research, which is a non-profit that Fortune describes as a “century-old organization” that has “mostly remained under the radar,” until recent conversations of whether the U.S. is in a recession or not.

This piece was written by Gregory Hoyt on July 28, 2022. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

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