Just Call McCain “The Imaginer”.
Someone put an economist on John McCain’s staff, ASAP, please.
Senator John McCain hit the morning shows today, following the first day of his weeklong “Jobs First” tour in various parts of the country.
He was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program whether he believed the nation was in a recession, that dreaded “R” term. Rather than repeat his oft-used description that the economy is “slowing,” Mr. McCain said, “I would imagine that technically there’s some question amongst economists about that. The fact is Americans are hurting, they’re hurting badly.”
He went on to complain that American opinion of Congress was at an all-time low, and later talked about what he said was its out-of-control spending. “Meanwhile, what’s the answer? Go out on a Fourth of July recess without passing a housing bill … Look, Americans are fed up and I understand it and so if we’re technically in a recession, I would imagine we are.”
Here’s the thing. There isn’t any question among economists about whether we are in a recession or not. A recession, at the very least, requires two or more periods of negative economic growth over a certain period of time. Now, if you listen to the television yakking masses, we’re definitely smack in the middle of the WORST RECESSION EVAR.
How many quarters of negative growth have we had in the past year?
Zero. None. Not a single one.
Admittedly, growth wasn’t particularly great – .6 percent in the last quarter of 2007 and .9 percent in the first quarter of this year. The trend, though, is upward as the forecast for the second quarter is for growth of at least one percent.
That is not negative. That is not a recession, not in any correct sense of the word.
John McCain should grow a spine on the economy. He should have told that knucklehead Joe Scarborough that even though we’ve taken a couple big gut-punches in the past 18 months or so, we never dropped into a recession. Our economic growth is still positive and it’s getting better, even high gasoline prices. Then he could note that if the Democratic party could stop playing silly political games and let our creative and motivated citizens get the oil we already know we have and start to working in earnest on nuclear plants and alternative energy sources, oil prices would drop and our economy would take off just like it’s trying to do right now.
But he won’t, because he really doesn’t have a great handle on the economy right now At some point you’d figure that his staff would put this book in his hands
(via memeorandum)
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Category: General
Because it is not based on facts?
Yes, people are feeling bad because of the high gas prices and not because there is a recession. However, what is the point of trying to deny that people do not like the current economic conditions?
The argument that there is no recession is a loser. I suggest you drop it.
Roy – There is a difference between a recession and "people not liking the economy".
We are not in a recession. Period.
No, people do not like the economy and I never said that McCain shuold not acknowledge and try to repair that. But he is wrong to just change the meaning of the word to suit his political purposes just as the MSM has been wrong for doing the same thing for a year.
And Kerry was factually correct when he stated his "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it" statement was not a flip-flop. That worked out well for him, didn't it?
The voters do not care whether or not there is actually a real economic recession. They just care about their personal recession. That is why the MSM and the Dems were able to twist "recession" to fit their purposes. Again, we win absoluetely nothing in this battle.
I think the voters care a great deal about whether they're being lied to or not. Calling what we're in a recession is exactly that.
What's wrong with saying what I said in my post, about how the economy, despite the trouble we've endured the past year, is still rising and that Democrats are diong their dead-level best to kill it? That's a winner.