“You don’t have a recession when you have 500,000 jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years,” Yellen said during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.
“What I see is a path in which inflation is declining significantly, and the economy is remaining strong,” Yellen said on GMA. “And really that’s a path I believe is possible, and it’s what I’m hoping we will be able to achieve.”
“America has paid … some of these bills on time since 1789; and not to do so — we produce an economic and financial catastrophe,” she said. “And every responsible member of Congress must agree to raise the debt ceiling. It’s something that simply can’t be negotiable.”
She added: “And while sometimes we’ve gotten up to the wire, it’s something that Congress has always recognized their responsibility, needs to do again.”
And asked to square Friday’s low unemployment numbers with ABC polling that 41% of Americans feel they are worse off from when Biden took office, Yellen said the “country has been through a lot,” as she pointed to stress from the pandemic, the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, and inflation.
— CNN’s Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.
