McHenry to Democrats: Changing the Definition of ‘Recession’ or Touting a ‘Biden Boom’ Doesn’t Change the Fact that 80 Percent of Americans Agree the Economy is on the Wrong Track

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McHenry to Democrats: Changing the Definition of ‘Recession’ or Touting a ‘Biden Boom’ Doesn’t Change the Fact that 80 Percent of Americans Agree the Economy is on the Wrong Track

Washington, Jul 27 -

Today, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a markup of a grab bag of mostly partisan legislation that does nothing to address the most pressing issues for Americans or provide relief for struggling families. Instead of working to ease the pain of Democrat-induced inflation or a potential recession, Democrats are more focused on distracting from their atrocious economic record.

Watch Republican Leader Patrick McHenry's (NC-10) opening remarks here.

Read key excerpts from Republican Leader McHenry’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery:

“… Let’s take a quick look at some of the headlines from this week.

“Wall Street Journal: The U.S. Middle Class Is Getting Squeezed in 2022.

“Bloomberg: Difficulty Paying Bills Tops Pandemic High in US Census Survey.

“Fox Business: Businesses are spending more to stay afloat while economic optimism drops.

“And CNBC: The numbers show the U.S. economy is at least teetering on a recession.

“These are the issues the American people are talking about and care about.

“But here we are with a largely partisan markup again. What I would ask is that we focus on the big issues that the American people care about, especially at this point in the Congressional calendar.

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“For example, we’ll consider a bill that prevents credit reporting agencies from including prior names in a credit report. How does this help strengthen underwriting and lower the cost of credit for families who really need it? Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

“We’ll also consider a bill that might appear benign—in that it recognizes the benefits of alternative forms of credit for loans—but really saddles mortgage lenders with unnecessary, costly regulations. It also grants Democrats’ favorite regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with broad authority to write rules for mortgage creditors. That won’t help anyone.

“Next up on the docket is a bill to require the Departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development to submit yet another annual report—this time on federally-assisted properties that are failing inspections.

“Instead, shouldn’t we work together to actually fix the problems that this reporting would identify and the problems associated with federally assisted housing?

“We’ll dig into the rest of the bills as they come up, but I’ll just remind my friends across the aisle that these bills are going nowhere. They won’t make it in the Senate, and they are not bipartisan.

“This is an exercise much more about electoral politics than addressing the horrible record on the economy.

“But, as the Biden Administration has learned time and time again, it’s hard to sneak one over on the American people.

“Changing the definition of ‘recession’ or touting a ‘Biden Boom’ doesn’t change the fact that 80 percent of Americans agree the economy is on the wrong track.

“I hope after a month of hearing that directly from their constituents, my Democratic colleagues will come back in September ready to work with Republicans to tackle these issues. …”

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