That’s actually the headline from the CNN website, but White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee doesn’t quite give a categorical denial. If we don’t pass the $30 billion small-business initiative, extend the Bush tax cuts (for the middle class, anyway), and do, er, something about exports, then we won’t get a double-dip recession. At least, that’s what Goolsbee hopes:

Not exactly a confidence builder, is it? Today’s economic indicator didn’t give the White House any better talking points, either. Although personal income rose in July, it only rose 0.2%, hardly a banner month for growth. In fact, when taking into account all of the expenditures of the average family in July, disposable income actually declined by 0.1%,which means that we won’t see any consumer boost to the economy in the near term. And that’s with the Bush tax cuts to the middle class still in place.

This answers another question, too. When the White House needed to send someone out to jolly the media through bad economic news, they had been sending Christine Romer to do her Chip Diller impersonation. Looks like Goolsbee drew the short straw in the Oval Office.