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Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., blasted the Biden administration Thursday for “gaslighting” the American people by denying the reality of recession.
In response to Biden’s denial that the U.S. is in a recession, DeSantis tweeted, “U.S. GDP dropped for a second quarter in a row, which is the definition of a recession.”
According to Fox Business, the gross domestic product fell by 0.9 percent during the second quarter. In the first quarter, U.S. GDP shrank by 1.6 percent. Following two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the U.S. has officially entered a recession.
Even before the GDP report was released this week, the Biden administration seemingly tried to change the definition of a recession. Brian Deese, a White House economic advisor, stated, “Two negative quarters of GDP growth is not the technical definition of recession.”
Biden responded to news of America entering a recession Thursday, saying, “It’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation.”
After trying to deflect from the recession discussion by touting positive jobs numbers, Biden again denied the reality, saying, “That doesn’t sound like recession to me.”
DeSantis pushed back against Biden’s statements Thursday, saying, “While the Biden Administration and its legacy media cheerleaders are trying to gaslight people about the economic slowdown, we have seen Biden’s poor economic stewardship and the negative impact it has had on families.”
DeSantis has been a constant critic of Biden’s economic policies that he believes have caused America to enter a recession. He also warned that inflation could worsen if the government continues to pass big spending bills.
“Now, Biden wants to tax and spend even more, which will only make things worse,” he said.
This week, the Biden administration and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced they had come to an agreement on Biden’s Build Back Better bill, which would be labeled “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, “Democrats have already crushed American families with historic inflation. Now they want to pile on giant tax hikes that will hammer workers and kill many thousands of American jobs. First they killed your family’s budget. Now they want to kill your job too.”
