Bahama Times

Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Dem congressman says monthly inflation is zero, claims US not in a recession

Dem congressman says monthly inflation is zero, claims US not in a recession

Rep. Don Beyer said in the House Rules Committee that the United States is not experiencing a recession, despite two negative growth quarters

Rep. Don Beyer said Wednesday that there was no month-over-month inflation and that the U.S. economy is not in a recession during a House Rules Committee markup on Democrats' social spending and taxation bill.

"This morning we just found out that inflation last month was 0.00%. That was the inflation from June to July," Beyer, D-Va., said.

"We've come a long way adapting to the supply chain disruptions of COVID and the Russia-Ukraine war, adapting as quickly as possible. And I was thrilled to see that GasBuddy yesterday said the average price of gasoline in America was under $4 — $3.99," the congressman continued.

Beyer's comments came after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the latest consumer price index numbers Wednesday morning. The agency found that due to a decline in gas prices, the monthly consumer price index change between June and July 1 was 0.0%, despite prices increasing for electricity, food, housing and more.

However, the year-over-year inflation number, according to the BLS, was 8.5%, still hovering around 40-year highs.

Like Beyer, President Biden touted the 0.0% monthly inflation number in remarks earlier Wednesday, drawing criticism from conservatives.

"It's a bogus math trick. This is the overall one-month index change," Brownstone Institute President Jeffrey Tucker tweeted. "Using the same tactic, you could also observe a one-month 19.2% increase in electricity! But of course we would not do that because that's dumb."

Beyer also during his testimony in the Rules Committee markup said that the United States in not in a recession, despite the U. S. seeing two quarters of negative growth — a generally accepted definition of a recession.


"We also note we are not in a recession, we delivered 528,000 new jobs in the month of July, 9 and a half million new jobs in the first year and a half of the Biden administration," Beyer said.

"The National Bureau of Economic Research, which is the entity formally dedicated to declare … a recession, clearly said that we are not in a recession right now," he added. "Yes, there was a small, small second-quarter dip of GDP, almost completely due to the sell-off of inventory across other businesses."

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has not yet declared the U.S. economy to be in a recession. But the group usually takes quite some time to make such a decision — for example, it declared a recession from the 2007 crash in December 2008.

It's unclear what Beyer was referring to when he said NBER said the U.S. is not in recession. It has no recent publications saying such a thing, and reports say it is still making its evaluation.

The decline in U.S. economic growth in the second quarter of the year meets the technical, but unofficial, criteria for a recession, which requires a "significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months."

The Rules Committee meeting Wednesday afternoon featured debate between Republicans and Democrats about the effect of Democrats' social spending and tax bill, including if it would help reduce inflation.

Members also feuded over tax provisions of the bill and how they will affect Americans at the onset of a recession. Republicans cited numbers from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) showing that a significant burden from the taxes in the bill will fall on the middle class, including $17 billion on Americans making less than $200,000, according to House Budget Committee Ranking Member Jason Smith, R-Mo.

Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., pushed back on that, saying the JCT numbers reflect costs that would be passed to consumers and workers from taxes on corporations. He said middle-class Americans won't actually see that reflected on their tax bills, and that he disagrees with the analysis that the burden for taxes on corporations would fall on them.

"This is not a tax increase," McGovern said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Bahama Times
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×