Recession is ‘possible but not inevitable’, Buttigieg says

 Despite sharp increases in interest rates meant to cool the economy with year-over-year inflation barely easing in the latest Consumer Price Index report, a recession is “possible but not inevitable”, on Sunday, Pete Buttigieg Transportation Secretary said. 

If the threat of recession worried him Buttigieg was asked in an interview on “This Week”.

Buttigieg told anchor George Stephanopoulos, adding that it’s “been hard for the supply side to keep up, “Look, it’s possible but not inevitable, Americans have more income, in this almost Americans have jobs historically low level of unemployment because a part of why we do see a lot of pressure on prices is that while the demand has come back”.

Buttigieg said, by the COVID-19 pandemic referring to a supply-chain crunch exacerbated “That’s a big part of what we’re working on the infrastructure side dealing with some of the bottlenecks we have, we have in transportation infrastructure that’s needed to be upgraded for decades that dealing with some of the constraints”.

He believed an economic downturn was unlikely but conceded there could be a “very slight recession”, last week President Joe Biden said. The CEO of the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, his comments came after Jamie Dimon, who warned a recession is likely within six to nine months because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and historically high inflation and the rising interest rates to combat those prices.

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times so far and again next month is expected.

On what more Biden could do about rising prices to tackle inflation he would soon be announcing more steps and, particularly, the cost of gas after the president said Stephanopoulos pressed Buttigieg.

To “get ahead of the president”, Buttigieg emphasized that he didn’t want but from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve he highlighted how Biden had ordered the release of fuel and waived a requirement on ethanol blending for gas stations.

“The president has sustained and for American families creating more of that breathing room throughout this year on fighting inflation this is part of a bigger focus”, Buttigieg said.

According to AAA, while gas prices have fallen sharply from a summer high now averaging about $3.90, down from $5.02 in mid-June they are 20 cents higher than they were just a month ago. Buttigieg laid some of the blame with oil companies, from criticism of excessive profits who have defended themselves.

Their slim congressional majorities this November the economic headwinds could cost Democrats.

With just 23 days until the midterm elections Stephanopoulos asked Buttigieg how the party should address high inflation. In Biden’s low approval rating Polls show it is a major factor in handling the economy with voters giving Republicans the advantage and Republicans have, in turn, made the state of the economy central to their campaign messaging.

“Good policy is good politics. With proposals and achievements, legislatively, that is popular because they make sense and we have been doing the right thing for the American people,” Buttigieg said. 

In 2021 he pointed to a bipartisan infrastructure funding bill that was signed, which has allowed for improvements to bridges, roads and airports across the country, as well as the recently enacted Infrastructure Reduction Act (IRA), which contains provisions aimed at lowering health care costs.

To make sure those policies continue, Buttigieg suggested that the November elections were important: “It’s why we can’t turn back on the progress that’s been made, especially because we know there’s still a long way to go.”

To allow Medicare he cited some conservative objections to negotiate prescription drug prices, which was a major part of the IRA. The negotiation power is a “price control” that will hamstring pharmaceutical development, GOP lawmakers have said.

Buttigieg said “For the American people for health care or anything else it’s the wrong time to do anything that would increase costs”. 

Whether Biden should spend more time highlighting the White House’s other 2021 successes Stephanopoulos asked, like a temporary expansion of the child tax credit which expired at the end of last year and direct COVID relief payments.

Buttigieg said “What he believed were others and then noted we are proud of those accomplishments,” and then noted, such as a funding bill for domestic manufacturing, a veterans’ health care bill and Biden’s initial COVID-19 relief bill when the economy “was at risk of going into free-fall.”

“In some ways having to talk about all at once so much legislatively makes it hard because there are just so many”, he said.