JEC issues response to president’s economic report

The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released its response to the Economic Report of the President, making recommendations to improve the economy.

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The JEC is required by law to respond to the president’s report, which is released each year by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). This year’s economic report, released in April, was the first by President Joe Biden.

The JEC response outlines a path forward to lower costs and advance economic growth. Specifically, the JEC calls for investments that improve productivity and increase labor force participation. That, combined with efforts to ensure the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes, will help bring down inflationary pressures and promote economic growth.

“President Biden inherited an economy in turmoil. Working together, the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress contained the economic fallout and jumpstarted a record-breaking economic rebound,” U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), chair of the JEC, said. “Today, the U.S. has recovered 96% of the jobs lost during the pandemic, and the speed and strength of our economic recovery has exceeded expectations across nearly every metric. Even as we faced new waves of the pandemic, we met them from a position of strength. Our economy remained resilient, and demand remained strong.”

The JEC noted that the United States had added almost 8.7 million jobs under Biden, and the unemployment rate had fallen to 3.6 percent – down from 6.4 percent when Biden took office. However, it notes the challenges created by pandemic supply chain disruptions and inflation.

“But decades of declining public investment eroded the underlying foundation of our economy, leading to corporate concentration, vulnerable supply chains, and fragile household finances. The coronavirus pandemic exposed these cracks in our foundation, and Putin’s recent invasion of Ukraine has exposed the precariousness of dependence on fossil fuels,” Beyer said. “Emergency pandemic relief was effective at helping families weather the worst of the coronavirus, and now more is needed to alleviate inequalities, bring down costs, and create economic opportunity for all.”