On Sunday’s “This Week” program, Biden administration Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen continued to try to put a positive spin on the president’s poor economic track record. But the most stunning piece of twirling was this: she refuses to say the U.S. is falling headlong into a recession.
Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen tells @GStephanopoulos that a recession isn't “inevitable," but says inflation is "unacceptably high."
"I expect the economy to slow." https://t.co/xMZVnzRLgN pic.twitter.com/Xx9UpkmWz4
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 19, 2022
It isn’t hard to find economic experts who say that’s just plain wrong–that the reality of recession is staring everyone right in the face. Here’s former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers telling Chuck Todd exactly that, over on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday:
WATCH: @chucktodd: “Can inflation at this point be tamed without triggering a recession?”@LHSummers: “I don’t think there are historical precedents for inflation at the rate we now have it coming down to the target the Fed has set of 2% without a recession.” pic.twitter.com/spZJCFs5Up
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 19, 2022
“Look, nothing is certain and all economic forecasts have uncertainty. My best guess is that a recession is ahead,” Summers told moderator Chuck Todd during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “I base that on the fact that we haven’t had a situation like the present with inflation above 4 percent and unemployment beyond 4 percent without a recession following within a year or two.”
As my colleague Streiff shared late last week, the administration was saved from its own folly, it appears, on a shelved scheme to send out gas rebate card to millions of Americans’ mailboxes.
That wrongheadedness hasn’t abated, as Yellen’s remarks on Sunday make clear. She reveals one thing the administration is signalling it wants to do to “help” inflation–and it could be a potential, national security disaster. She floats the notion that Biden will end the Trump administration’s tariffs against China.
Pres. Biden is reviewing tariff policy toward China because some tariffs from Trump administration serve “no strategic purpose and raise costs to consumers," Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen tells @GStephanopoulos. https://t.co/ApFBeNbliM pic.twitter.com/arNTW4rcaD
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 19, 2022
I call it “wrongheaded,” but that doesn’t begin to describe how bad this shortsighted move would be. You likely aren’t surprised, though. Now, will it ease the inflation pinch on Americans? Possibly. And that’s all that’s being weighed here by the progressives running this White House.
The real damage Americans see happening to our once-vibrant economy is just as brutal for the left as the poll numbers we’ve reported about the midterms. The numbers just don’t lie. Democrats are looking down the barrel of a massive bloodletting of their base support, and dismal prospects come 2024. At this point, they might reckon they have nothing to lose here.
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