"The majority of them aren't saying that. C'mon, don't make things up, OK?" Biden told reporters during his walk Monday on Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.
"Now you sound like a Republican politician. I'm joking. That was a joke. That was a joke. But all kidding aside, I don't think it is."
The question is an obvious reference to former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers telling NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday: "My best guess is that a recession is ahead."
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"I was talking to Larry Summers this morning, and there's nothing inevitable about a recession," Biden added.
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Lawrence Summers is not only a Democrat who served as Treasury secretary for Democrat President Bill Clinton but also a former White House National Economic Council director under former President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden.
Biden said Monday that he would decide by the end of the week whether he would back a federal gasoline tax holiday, possibly saving U.S. consumers as much as 18.4 cents a gallon.
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“Yes, I’m considering it,” Biden told reporters after taking a walk along the beach near his vacation home in Delaware. “I hope to have a decision based on the data — I’m looking for by the end of the week.”
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The administration is increasingly looking for ways to excuse the public from higher prices at the pump, which began to soar last year and surged after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Gas prices nationwide are averaging just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA.
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Biden said members of his team were to meet this week with CEOs of the major oil companies to discuss rising prices. Biden lashed out at oil companies, saying they are making excessive profits when people are feeling the crunch of skyrocketing costs at the pump and inflation. But Biden said he would not be meeting the oil executives himself.
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“I want an explanation for why they aren’t refining more oil,” Biden said.
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The Biden administration has already freed oil from the U.S. strategic reserve and increased ethanol blending for the summer, in addition to sending a letter last week to oil refiners urging them to increase their refining capacity. Yet those efforts have yet to reduce price pressures meaningfully, such that the administration is now considering a gas tax holiday. Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel help to pay for highways.
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