In a speech Monday concerning the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), President Joe Biden praised the health of the American economy under his leadership.
“We’ve made strong economic progress in the past two years. We’ve created more than 12 million new jobs, more jobs than any president has created in a single four year term. Unemployment is below 4 percent for 14 straight months,” Biden said. “Take home pay for workers is going up, especially for lower- and middle- income workers.”
Despite high levels of inflation and other signs of economic trouble, the Biden White House have regularly touted the strength of the economy.
But according to the Foundation for Government Accountability, Biden’s pollyanna analysis of America’s economic picture glosses over a major sign of profound dysfunction in the economy.
Namely, the fact that two million Americans are missing from the workforce since the start of the pandemic.
From FGA Andrew Welhouse:
The Left and the liberal media are working overtime to convince us the economy is just fine.
Unfortunately for them, we can see the cracks with our own eyes. The American people know that bank failures, grocery inflation, unaffordable housing, and $50 to fill up the tank are not the signs of a working economy.
Adding to the anxiety, a new report has identified a warning sign below the surface—more than two million workers who should have returned to the labor force, but didn’t. Based on paycheck data and direct deposits, Bank of America found that work is way down compared to before the pandemic. Highlights from the report:
- The “Missing Millions”: More than “two million workers should have come back to the labor force but haven’t.”
- Not Just Baby Boomers: “[P]rime-age workers (Millennials and Gen X) are exiting the labor force too, specifically lower-income workers in the restaurant and retail sectors.” Boomers are retiring—and Gen Zers are dropping out.
- An Ongoing Problem: This isn’t going away on its own. According to the report, this is “unlikely to be resolved in the near term, [and] we think labor supply could face more persistent headwinds.”
Unfortunately, the very same liberal policymakers and talking heads are actively opposing a solution in Washington, D.C., that could give a major boost to the workforce: work requirements for able-bodied adults as part of food stamps and Medicaid. Work requirements are already a part of public housing and childcare assistance, because government programs were never supposed to be a replacement for work.
Before the pandemic, we knew what worked in lifting people from welfare to work—work requirements. Some, especially the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program included measures to encourage an end result of rejoining the workforce.
However, that goal seems to have changed in Washington, D.C.
Read the rest of FGA’s analysis here.