In a statement made on Tuesday and obtained by The Tennessee Star, Tennessee 5th Congressional District candidate and former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell took the Biden administration to task over its rhetoric on a possible economic recession and “their disastrous policies.”
“The Biden administration wants to change the definition for ‘recession’ because they’re trying to cover up their disastrous policies that have put the American economy in this position. The American people are smart enough to see what they’re doing,” said Harwell.
“It’s universally accepted that two consecutive quarters of negative growth is a recession. We’ll see what happens on Thursday, but Biden should be doing things the Tennessee way,” she said.
“As Speaker of the Tennessee House, we eliminated the income tax and the death tax, and we cut regulations, which made Tennessee a place where people wanted to do business. Now people are moving to Tennessee from all over the country because of our pro-business polices that we put in place,” added the former speaker.
The Biden administration rhetoric on whether or not the United States is in an economic recession have been widely reported on.
A recession is identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.
CNN reported that “Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese argued earlier Monday that if this week’s report from the Commerce Department shows a second consecutive negative quarter of GDP it does not mean the U.S. is in a recession.”
The network additionally reported that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argued on Sunday the economy is in “transition” and there is a “slowdown.”
“This is not an economy that’s in recession, but we’re in a period of transition in which growth is slowing,” she said on Meet the Press.
The Washington Examiner reported that Biden told reporters on Monday, “We’re not going to be in a recession, in my view. The unemployment rate is still one of the lowest we’ve had in history. It’s in the 3.6 area. We still find ourselves with people investing. My hope is we go from this rapid growth to a steady growth, and so we’ll see some coming down, but I don’t think we’re going to, God willing. I don’t think we’re going to see a recession.”
The Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat is August 4.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, Truth Social, and Parler.
Background Photo “U.S. Capitol” by Andrew Van Huss. CC BY-SA 4.0.
