Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says recession is 'possible but not inevitable'

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Pete Buttigieg says recession is 'possible but not inevitable,' on ABC's 'This Week'

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tells ABC's George Stephanopoulos recession is "possible" but touts Biden administration's efforts to expand U.S. production capacity.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said recession is "possible but not inevitable," in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos Sunday.

"How worried are you?" Stephanopoulos asked Buttigieg of America's economic future on "This Week."

"Look, it's possible but not inevitable," Buttigieg said. "And we're doing everything we can to strengthen the foundations of the American economy." And that means a lot on the supply side."

What that looks like, Buttigieg said, is expanding the production capacity in the U.S. 

LARRY SUMMERS SAYS ‘MORE LIKELY THAN NOT’ THERE WILL BE A RECESSION WITHIN 18 MONTHS

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 10, 2021. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)

The transportation secretary said it's hard for the supply side to keep up with increased demand, touting the September jobs report showing that unemployment had fallen to a half-century low and average pay had risen. 

The administration, he said, is working on dealing with the "bottlenecks" and "constraints" in transportation infrastructure "that's needed to be upgraded for decades." Under this president, Buttigieg said, it has "finally gotten done."

The jobs report raised concerns, however, that the Federal Reserve had a ways to go to fight inflation. 

JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon warned last week that the U.S. is headed for a recession in the next six to nine months.

"But you can’t talk about the economy without talking about stuff in the future – and this is serious stuff," Dimon said, citing inflation, quantitative easing, and Russia’s war with Ukraine. 

"These are very, very serious things, which I think are likely to push the U.S. and the world – I mean, Europe is already in recession, and they’re likely to put the U.S. in some kind of recession six to nine months from now," he continued.

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President Biden told reporters that the economy is "strong as hell" while eating ice cream at Baskin-Robbins in Portland, Oregon on October 15, 2022.  (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper last Tuesday, President Biden acknowledged the possibility that a "slight recession" could occur in the near future, but said he did not "anticipate" it.

"Should the American people prepare for a recession?" Tapper asked.

"No," Biden said. "Look, they've been saying this now — every six months they say this, every six months, they look down at the next six months and see what's gonna happen. It hadn't happened yet." 

"I don't think there will be a recession," Biden added. "If it is, it will be a slight recession — that is, we'll move down slightly."

BIDEN ADMITS ‘SLIGHT RECESSION’ COULD HAPPEN BUT SAYS ‘I DON’T ANTICIPATE IT'

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks on the state of the U.S. economy during a press conference at the Department of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., July 28, 2022.  (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Despite the recession worries, the transportation secretary suggested that Democrats have plenty of "accomplishments" to tout on the campaign trail heading into the November midterms. Like other Biden officials on the Sunday talk shows, Buttigieg touted the Inflation Reduction Act as helping to lower the cost of healthcare and energy. 

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"If Republicans in Congress get their way, prices will go up and inflation will get worse," Biden tweeted Sunday. "It’s that simple."

Republicans have hit back and called the president "out of touch" for celebrating the $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which, according to University of Pennsylvania Penn Wharton analysis released in August, would only reduce annual inflation by 0.1 percentage point over the next five years.

"Joe Biden is the most out-of-touch president of my lifetime. He looks like a fool celebrating his reckless spending spree while prices continue to rise, and the stock market is tanking," Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Fox Business' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.