Kerby Anderson

If you pay people for not working, then people aren’t likely to go out and look for work. Most of us would think that is basic common sense. But apparently that eluded many in Congress except for a few US senators like Ben Sasse and Lindsey Graham. Months ago, they warned that providing high unemployment benefits to those out of work would create a disincentive.

Two weeks ago, the April jobs report lamented that only 266,000 jobs were created in the month. Economists had been predicting more than a million jobs would be created in April. By the way, this is the largest miss in decades.

At the time, the president had difficulty explaining why so few jobs were created but was sure that it was Trump’s fault. In fact, he made the unbelievable claim that there were no “measurable” data that people weren’t looking for jobs because it pays more not to work. The president needs to get out more and talk to employers trying to do all they can to hire people for positions readily available.

One article did some quick calculations and concluded that workers could get nearly $16-an-hour by staying home. That is more than double the federal minimum wage. Bank of America estimated that anyone making $32,000 or less would be better off staying on unemployment than going back to work.

More than a week ago, Senator Ben Sasse called this a clear “policy failure at work here: There are 7,400,000 jobs open in the US but fewer than 300,000 people found work.” Senator Tim Scott concluded that “Democrats are disincentivizing work, pushing billions in wasteful spending, and threatening major tax hikes.” Sadly, the president and Congress don’t seem interested in changing course.