‘Soviet-Style Propaganda’: Republicans Rip Biden White House for Redefining ‘Recession’ amid Economic Contraction

Republican officials in the House and Senate ripped into the Biden administration after it attempted to redefine what constitutes a recession while concerns mount about a significant decline in economic activity this year.

On Thursday, ahead of a potentially negative GDP report expected later this week — the annualized economic growth rate shrank by 1.6% in the first quarter of this year and appears to have contracted even more in the second — a White House blog post attempted to redefine the term “recession.”

“While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle,” it reads, concluding that it is “unlikely that the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year — even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter — indicates a recession.”