Joe Biden does a Humpty Dumpty with ‘slight’ recession remark

OPINION:

President Joe Biden said during an interview on CNN that he didn’t think there would be a recession, but if there were, it would be “very slight” — but not to worry because he doesn’t “anticipate” even this slightness of economic slump.

Democrats and their equivocations. 

Just as it’s tough to be slightly pregnant, it’s tough to be in a “slight recession.” Either you are or you ain’t. Either you are in one or you ain’t.

From host Jake Tapper: “JP Morgan Chase CEO [Jamie Dimon] said the U.S. is likely to enter a recession in the next nine months. Bank of America says the U.S. could start losing 175,000 jobs a month. Gas prices are on the rise again. Should the American people prepare for a recession?”

Prepare?

How about past tense?

Some say America’s been in a recession; others say this administration’s redefined “recession” so as to give the appearance of a chugging-along U.S. economy; still, others pull on their Alfred E. Neuman hat and adopt their best ‘who, me? — nothing to see here, go home, folks’ tone.

But real Americans know the deal.

The grocery shelves scream higher prices. So, too, the gas pumps. Then comes the International Monetary Fund with its gloom-and-doom predictions of global “stormy waters” on the economic front and it’s clear: The dreaded “R” word is not going away any time soon.

Except if you’re a Biden.

“No,” he said, in answer to Tapper’s question over whether Americans should prepare for a recession.

No. Don’t be silly.

“Look,” he went on, “they’ve been saying this now how — every six months, they say this. Every six months, they look down at the next six months and say what’s going to happen. It hasn’t happened yet. It hasn’t — there has — there’s no guarantee that there’s going to be — I don’t think there will be a recession.”

There ya have it.

Or do we?

“If it is,” Biden continued, “it will be a very slight recession. That is, we’ll move down slightly.”

A slight recession.

A slight positive pregnancy test.

A slight positive COVID-19 test.

A slight open border. 

A slight male — who is really a female. But just a slight female. Slightly feminine, slightly not feminine. 

Democrats. They’re the Humpty Dumpty of the real world: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Or, as Biden might put it, slightly.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE  or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.