Unrelenting Doocy spars with Jean-Pierre over new definition of ‘recession’: What changed?

Faced with a dismal economic outlook, it seems like the Biden administration is changing the traditional or generally accepted meaning of recession perhaps along the lines of how it stealth-edited the definition of vaccination during the pandemic.

Based on his interaction with Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy isn’t buying it.

Doocy is practically the only journalist among the White House press corps who is willing to pose tough questions (perhaps speaking truth to power, as the left often used to say before it became the power) to President Biden’s press secretary.

Last week, the White House Council of Economic Advisers sought to move the goal posts, and at a Tuesday press briefing, Biden economic adviser Brian Deese continued on that theme.

“So I just want to make a final note on the definition of recession, which has been an issue that I know many of you have reported on. As [Treasury] Secretary Yellen said on Sunday, two negative quarters of GDP growth is not the technical definition of recession. It’s not the definition that economists have traditionally relied on,” Deese claimed.

In the video clip embedded below, Doocy sought to follow up with Jean-Pierre, who seemed to be in denial or unformed, which is hardly unusual for her.

“If things are going so great, though, why is it that White House officials are trying to redefine recession?” Doocy reasonably wondered.

“No, we’re not redefining recession,” the White House publicist, as Doocy’s colleague Tucker Carlson has described her as well as her predecessor Jen Psaki, replied.

Doocy countered: “If we all understand recession to be two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, in a row, and then you have White House officials come up here to say, no, no no, that’s not what a recession is. It’s something else. How is that not redefining recession?”

“Because that is not the definition. That is not the definition,” Jean-Pierre insisted.

Doocy then brought up Deese’s inconsistent statements: “Brian Deese said in 2008, ‘Of course, economists have a technical definition, which is, of a recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.’ And then yesterday, he said two negative quarters of GDP growth is not the technical definition of a recession. What changed?”

Jean-Pierre responded in this way while appearing to be looking at notes: “It is not; it is not. I can speak to what he said yesterday in front of all of you which is the last thing that you just repeated. There are many factors — there are many economic factors and indicators to consider, and I will say that the textbook definition of a recession is not, is not, two negative quarters of GDP…”

GDP is gross domestic product, which is generally the value of goods and services a country produces in a given time frame.

In a quote attributed to George Orwell, the prophetic “1984” author who often warned about the misuse or corruption of language, he reportedly once said “political language is designed to make lies sound truthful.”

With Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) apparently caving to his party’s demands for an additional federal spending spree, the inflationary U.S. economy is unlikely to improve any time soon, regardless of the administration’s word games.

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