Economic Recovery After the Pandemic

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOORE of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I certainly appreciate his leadership on this and giving us an opportunity to speak about small business issues in our country.

Mr. Speaker, as restrictive government mandates on Americans have relaxed, our economy has begun recovering from the worst of the pandemic. Many businesses have reopened their doors, and there are now millions of new returning jobs and available jobs across the Nation.

Unfortunately, I hear from businesses large and small across my district that Big Government is getting in the way of the return of our booming prepandemic economy.

It is a bizarre paradox, but under the Biden administration, we are simultaneously facing an intense labor shortage and widespread unemployment at the same time, when our economy should be thriving back to prepandemic levels. Sadly, this is a common story in every corner of our country.

It is clear that the primary driver of this problem is federally subsidized unemployment benefits. In many regions, particularly in rural areas, would-be job seekers make more staying at home than reporting to work.

Recently, I was speaking to a friend of mine, and he called an unemployed driver that he was going to hire. The unemployed driver's response was this: I am going ride this mule until it drops.

Basically, what he was saying was: I am going to take this free money until it goes away.

Many small businesses are facing that very same issue. Some businesses have even offered cash bonuses to interviewees, but small businesses cannot afford this.

There are plenty of examples back home in my district. For example, in Houston County, there are 124 unemployment claims and over 2,000 job openings as we speak. In Coffee County, there are 57 unemployment claims and 570 job openings, with many more coming. In Dale County, there are 47 unemployment claims yet 350 job postings.

It is very simple. Small business cannot compete with government handouts. I am glad that many red States, including my great State of Alabama, have ended all federally funded pandemic unemployment benefits. I hope our numbers will improve as a result.

Removing these payments that were meant to be short-term is necessary to advance our economic recovery. But this is a real problem that betrays the Biden administration and congressional Democrats' fundamental misunderstanding of what powers an economy.

Mr. Speaker, the best welfare program in the world is a job, not government. I know that many of my Democratic colleagues agree with me.

Let's get Americans back to work by empowering workers and removing incentives to stay home. Only then can we truly reopen this economy.

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