Monday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Your World,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) questioned economic policy that pays people from government coffers as there are jobs available, despite the country’s months-long bout with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Georgia Republican lawmaker called such a policy “insanity” and offered the price increase for construction materials as an example of opportunities in the economy for employment.
“This is simple,” he said. “It’s insanity that the government is paying people to be idle instead of taking the millions of jobs that are available right now. I spent the last two weeks really integrating in the community, even working side by side with some folks in the construction industry.”
“And they are desperate to get people, not only to work for them but to work for the suppliers,” Loudermilk added. “I mean, look at lumber prices, 200% higher than they were this time last year. And a lot of that is attributed just to supply chain issue of getting products to people. And for the government to actually pay people more to stay at home than employers can afford to pay them to come to work is insanity. And how does a business compete with the big government like that? We can’t.”
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