With apologies to Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks, Joe Brandon and his economic team are a bunch of pathological liars.

Those are harsh words, sure, but we don’t know how else to explain the torrent of desperate spin coming out of the White House these days. Why, it’s almost as if they knew that still more grim economic news was headed our way, soon to say what we already know: that Bidenonmics and Bidenflation have teamed up to put us in a recession. As National Review’s Jim Geraghty writes:

As much as economy-watchers will be studying the Consumer Confidence Index numbers [today] and the Federal Reserve meeting and decision on interest rates Wednesday, the biggest deal will be the numbers for second-quarter economic growth, announced at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Thursday … The Atlanta Fed thinks it will show that the U.S. GDP shrank 1.6 percent in the last quarter. The previous quarter was a decline of 1.6 percent as well — so if the Atlanta Fed projection is correct, Thursday will bring news that the U.S. is now in a recession, at least by the traditional definition.

Ah, but only if we’re lazy enough to go by “the traditional definition.” On the other hand, if we’re smart and savvy and forward-looking like Joe Biden’s crack economic team, we see right past such standard definitions and inconvenient truths. Take Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, for example, who tried to fend off questions about recession coming from the normally sycophantic Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press.”

“This is not an economy that’s in recession,” said Yellen. “A recession is a broad-based contraction that affects many sectors of the economy. We just don’t have that. … But I do want to emphasize: What a recession really means is a broad-based contraction in the economy. And even if that number is negative, we are not in a recession now. And I would, you know, warn that we should be not characterizing that as a recession.”

When a cabinet official says “You know,” you can be fairly confident that the next string of words to come out of her mouth is a lie.

Yellen also helpfully explained all the wonderful things Team Brandon is doing for the economy — like how it’s creating all these jobs and lowering our gas prices from their record highs and reducing our ruinous deficit spending. Yellen isn’t alone, though. White House economic advisers Jared Bernstein, Brian Deese, and Gene Sperling have also been spinning furiously. But all this is too little, too late. Not even Gullible Chuck was buying what Yellen was selling.

Heck, not even the toadies at CNN are buying this spin. As Fox News reports, “CNN editor at large Chris Cillizza mocked President Biden for saying ‘We’re not going to be in a recession, in my view.’”

Said the old, white, pudgy, shortish Cillizza: “In my view, I should be drafted into the NBA.”

“It doesn’t really matter what you think,” Cillizza continued. “There is a technical definition, two straight quarters of negative economic growth. They clearly believe that is likely to come to pass later this week. They’re trying to pre-but it.”

That’s “pre-but” as in “prebuttal.” But it won’t work. We know where to affix the blame.

As our Nate Jackson noted last month, Joe Biden’s calamitous American Rescue Plan looms large in our current crisis. According to author James Bovard: “Federal Reserve analysts estimated that Biden’s deluge of handouts added 3% to the inflation rate by late last year. The Federal Reserve has boosted the money supply by 40% since the start of the pandemic, helping fuel price surges across the board.”

Inflation happens. And it happens most often when you print tons of money that you have no business printing. Inflation — which can be thought of as more dollars chasing fewer goods and services — kills economies. And Joe Biden’s runaway spending has been killing this one.

Imagine 40 percent more dollars out there competing for the same goods and services. Now you understand Bidenflation. And now you understand why everything from gas to groceries costs a lot more. And why your 401(k) is in the crapper and your retirement plans are on hold. As the New York Post reported recently, “It’s not just the recently retired who are stressed about financial stability — at least 25% of Americans say they have to delay retirement as inflation eats away at money they’ve set aside.”

Politico called the coming economic news a Category 5 economic storm, and it may be right. In that respect, it’s hard to blame these Big Government buffoons for lying through their rotten teeth wanting to frame an awful narrative as benignly as possible. But what did Joey Unite Us think was going to happen when he systematically undid all of Donald Trump’s pro-growth economic policies and replaced them with more regulation and more spending?

Between now and November 8, try to grin and bear it. Don’t be misled by the Jedi Mind Trick that these aren’t the awful economic numbers you’re looking for. And gently but firmly remind your left-of-center friends that elections have consequences.