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BushCo on Whether the Country is in a Recession: 'Don't Know'
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Today, reporters questioned White House Press Secretary Dana Perino on whether the U.S. economy is now in a recession. Perino, however, was unable to answer and became frustrated when reporters continued to push her:
Q Do you think the U.S. economy is in a recession?
MS. PERINO: You know I don't think that we know. ... So I couldn't say. The classic definition of a recession is not something that we could determine now, or forecast. It's something that people look back on. [...]
I don't know -- look, April, I don't know if there's -- if we are in a recession right now. And in fact, there's no one who could actually tell you if we precisely are in a recession right now. [...]
But I don't think anybody could tell you right now if we're in a recession or not. Those are just -- those are determinations that come later.
In April, when most economists were saying that the U.S. economy was in a recession, Bush was insisting that it wasn't. In March, he inexplicably claimed that "when people take a look back at this moment in our economic history, they'll recognize tax cuts work."
Even though Perino said that "no one" can say whether the United States is facing a recession, a new National Association of Business Economists poll finds that two-thirds of economists "say the U.S economy is in recession or will be by the end of the year -- up from a little over half of those surveyed in May." Data also indicate that the United States is in a consumer recession and a labor market recession. Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has reluctantly admitted this point, although he too has said that a recession is just "a technical term used by people who are economists and make these kinds of judgment."
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