Buttigieg Admits Recession Is 'Possible but Not Inevitable,' Defends Economy

A national recession is "possible, but not inevitable," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday while appearing on morning news shows to tout the Biden administration's approach to the economy. 

"We're doing everything we can to strengthen the foundations of the American economy, and that means a lot on the supply side and expanding the productive capacity of this country," Buttigieg commented on ABC's "This Week." "Why we see a lot of pressure on prices is that while demand has come back, Americans have more income ... in this almost historically low level of unemployment, it's been hard for the supply side to keep up."

The administration is also working to ease constraints that have been seen in the national transportation infrastructure that has needed upgrades for decades, said Buttigieg. 

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has said he'll announce more steps this week to address inflation and specifically, gas prices; and Buttigieg said the president has already taken many steps, including flexibility on ethanol to the release from the Strategic Oil Reserve. 

"He's also drawing attention to the fact that you've got a lot of corporations that are wildly profitable right now, in what seems to be a larger-than-usual spread between wholesale oil prices and what we're paying at the pump for gasoline," said Buttigieg. 

The economy is weighing heavily on Democrats as the midterms approach, but Buttigieg insisted the administration has been doing the "right thing" for the American people with proposals that are "popular because they make sense."

Already, the infrastructure law that was signed about a year ago is in play, with bridges, roads and more getting improvements, said Buttigieg. 

Buttigieg, also appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," defended Biden's economic policies and touted the administration's COVID-19 recovery package, saying it "rescued the economy."

Without the COVID package, he added, "we would not have had the 10 million jobs created with this president with the lowest unemployment numbers in history ... Look, I don't think anybody could argue that, for example, our unemployment numbers are anything but strong as hell."

He also argued that inflation is not only part of life in the United States, but it's a "global phenomenon."

• Rep. Chuck Fleischmann to Newsmax: Biden Has Taken 'Wrecking Ball' to US Energy
• ABC Poll: Nearly 70 Percent See Economy Getting Worse