Dem Rep. Green: There ‘Is a Technical Recession’ and People Are Feeling a Recession

On Saturday’s broadcast of “Fox News Live,” Rep. Al Green (D-TX) stated that the economy is in “a technical recession” but not “a recession of the type that we normally experience” and that Americans and his constituents are feeling a recession due to inflation, although “we ought not try to conclude that any president would be able to handle this better than this president has handled it.”

Green said, [relevant remarks begin around 2:40] “It is a technical recession, but you cannot overlook the fact that we’re creating jobs, that unemployment is very low. Those two things would cause one to conclude that we’re not in a recession of the type that we normally experience just yet. And we are working to prevent that from happening. That’s why we have the Inflation Reduction Act to help us to bring prices down, to make sure that persons will have the opportunity to have more money in their pockets and keep more of the money that they have in their pockets. So, I’m very much pleased with what the president is trying to do to get this done. This bill that we’re looking at is going to reduce the deficit…and it has offsets in it by making those big corporations, the 200 that pay less than 15% in taxes, they should pay their fair share. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Host Griff Jenkins then asked, “Do you believe Americans and your constituents in Texas are feeling a recession, whether the White House is calling it that or not?”

Green responded, “Of course they are. Of course people have a mindset that’s been created to cause them to think recession. I don’t deny this. My constituents care about the stock market, but they live by the supermarket and when they see prices going up in the supermarket, that impacts them — at the service station. But remember this, if we had no worldwide pandemic, no shutdown of the workforce worldwide, if we didn’t have those two things and if there was no Russian invasion, we wouldn’t have 9.1% inflation. It wouldn’t be the case. This is all brought on by a multiplicity of things and we ought not try to conclude that any president would be able to handle this better than this president has handled it.”

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