(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
After the abysmal jobs report last week, and the obvious connection of federally-subsidized, enhanced unemployment benefits helping to depress the labor market, my colleague Nick Arama wrote:
It means that the government is basically paying you more to stay home than you would get if you were working.
Joe Biden said he didn’t see any problem with that and he didn’t think that that was a factor why people weren’t going back to work. Oh, and he also said it was a major factor. I know, it makes no sense, but that’s Joe Biden.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The Republican Attorney General of Arizona invited Vice-President Kamala Harris to visit the Arizona border and observe firsthand the crisis at the state’s border. That invitation was issued last month. Since then, Kamala, the designated border czar, has not taken him up on the offer. Now the attorney general, Mark Brnovich, says it’s time to fire Kamala as border czar.
Brnovich rightly points out that Kamala finds time in her busy schedule to travel to other states, just not those on the Mexican border. She does travel to her home state of California but doesn’t bother to go to that state’s border either. Brnovich says it is insulting to Americans in border states to be ignored, especially during this crisis which is a historic level. The Biden administration is being tested and it is failing miserably.
Low Wages and Crappy Jobs Gave Us the Labor “Shortage”
Republicans think overly generous unemployment benefits are keeping people from working. Biden might be taking the bait.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A line of workers at Chipotle assemble food for customers.
Too many American workers have become layabouts living off the government dole. That’s the message same as it ever was being sent by some businesses and Republican politicians who think that recent difficulty finding low-wage workers is largely the result of overly generous unemployment benefits. Pull the unemployment benefits, their crude logic goes, and restaurants and stores will have all the workers they need desperate and willing to take whatever is offered. Never mind raising wages or improving job conditions; it’s government support in a time of ongoing crisis that’s the impediment to getting the economy roaring again.
Governors Call on President Biden to End Border Crisis
Governors Call on President Biden to End Border Crisis
PIERRE, SD – Today, Governor Kristi Noem, along with 19 governors, called on President Biden and Vice President Harris to take immediate action on the crisis at the southern border. You can read the governors’ letter here.
“The crisis is too big to ignore and is now spilling over the border states into all of our states,” wrote
Governor Noem and the other governors. “The cause of the border crisis is entirely due to reckless federal policy reversals executed within your first 100 days in office. The rhetoric of the Biden Administration and the rollback of critical agreements with our allies have led to the inhumane treatment of tens of thousands of children and undermined a fragile immigration system.”
Slimantics: Labor shortage may be more nuanced than it appears
Slim Smith
On Monday, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, who can’t resist any opportunity to punish the poor, announced the state will end federal pandemic subsidies for unemployed people in the state in June, ending the $300 per week federal supplements because he believes that the funds have created a disincentive for work.
For weeks now, employers have lamented the scarcity of available workers. The narrative is that people would rather stay home and live on the government dime than take a job that, in many cases, would actually reduce their income. Mississippi’s regular unemployment, which peaks at $235 per week, will continue as long as people can prove they are actively looking for work.