(RTTNews) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released a statement Monday after the National Bureau of Economic Research announced the US has been in a recession since December of 2007.

According to the NBER, the US entered the current recession back in December of last year. It was the end of an economic expansion that began in November 2001.

“A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income and other indicators,” the NBER said in the statement released Monday.

In commenting on the news, Reid said it was “hardly news” to American families that the US has been “in a recession for the past year.”

He said the announcement “simply makes official what we have long known - with rising costs of living, rising unemployment, record foreclosures and depleted savings, we must do more to help families make ends meet.”

The Democrat argued that such efforts “must include a substantial economic recovery package that creates good-paying jobs here in America, cuts taxes for the middle class and instills confidence to stabilize a volatile market.”

Reid said that, with cooperation of congressional Republicans, “we intend to send a plan to the White House as soon as possible following President-elect Obama’s inauguration next month.”

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Releases, USA.

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