Make Americans Work Again

I was raised to value a good day’s work and to have pride in what you bring to the table. To be skilled at a craft was an honorable way to make a living whether you were a dishwasher or a surgeon. Work gave each of us a greater self-worth, purpose, and pride.

My father was the youngest master plumber in Montana’s history, and he came from three generations of men who valued and mastered their trade. I still feel pride when an old timer stops me in the street to tell me about the time my dad or grandad helped repair their home.

But now, well outside the global pandemic, our workforce has shrunk to levels not seen since the 1970s, far lower than during the Great Recession of 2008-2009. More than a third of men are out of the work force – the lowest in recorded history – thanks in part to the massive regulatory and welfare state created under COVID and the public health emergency.

Not a day goes by in Montana that you don’t walk down Main St and see a restaurant or shop with a handwritten sign that says “closed today due to staff shortage” or have to wait four months for a vehicle repair.

That is not the sign of a strong economy. It’s the sign of a struggling workforce.

Requiring able-bodied adults who do not have children to work 20 hours a week if they receive government benefits is prudent and hits at our core American value of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps.

Plus, it saves taxpayer dollars and grows the economy. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Medicaid work requirement for childless adults ages 18 to 64 could save the federal fisc nearly $170 billion over 10 years.”

You’ll see the president taking victory laps because unemployment is low; well, it’s low because under his policies people are being paid not to work. People are being incentivized with lax unemployment benefits and other welfare to stay at home and not contribute to our community and economy.

That has to end. COVID is over. Our nation is tens of trillions of dollars in debt, facing crippling inflation, a broken supply chain and labor shortage, insolvent senior benefits, and is about to run headfirst into a financial crisis.

House Republicans have put forth a plan to make America work again, reduce the deficit, and put our nation on a healthy fiscal path. It’s called the Limit, Save, Grow Act.

This act, sometimes described in the media as a debt-ceiling plan, addresses the looming Democrat-created debt crisis by cutting excessive COVID spending, cutting regulations, and implementing pro-growth policies like a work requirement and energy permitting reform.

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