President Joe Biden isn’t worried about a recession despite a slight dip in America’s gross domestic product over the last quarter.
Biden took questions from reporters after giving an update on the war in Ukraine and was asked about recession concerns after the GDP shrank by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2022. The president said he’s not worried — at least not any more than usual.
WHITE HOUSE PREEMPTIVELY SPINNING SLOW GROWTH IN GDP REPORT
“I’m not concerned about a recession,” Biden said. “I mean, you’re always concerned about a recession, but the GDP falling 1.4% — here’s the deal. We also had, last quarter, consumer spending and business investment and residential investment increased at significant rates both for leisure, as well as hard products.”
The unemployment rate was also at its lowest number since 1970, Biden added.
Nevertheless, the GDP was expected to grow by about 1%, a fact that the White House preemptively addressed Wednesday. Press secretary Jen Psaki attributed the slowdown mainly to “technical reasons.”
Aside from his press conference comments, Biden released a statement earlier Thursday morning pointing to COVID-19, inflation, and the war in Ukraine as the reasons for the contraction.
In both statements, the president called on Republicans to help out.
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“If our Republican friends are really interested in doing something about dealing with economic growth, they should help us continue to lower the deficit,” Biden said. “They should be willing to work with us to have a tax code that is actually one that works and where everybody pays their fair share.”
