| Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #231 2/26/2021, 2/27/2021, 2/28/2021 |
| 1) Stimulus Bill Can Pay $100,000 on Annual Basis to Unemployed Workers A new piece in the Wall Street Journal by CTUP’s Stephen Moore and Casey Mulligan reports that the “stimulus” bill will REDUCE employment by between 6 and 8 million jobs because it pays people not to work. The new bill will create one of the largest expansions in government welfare benefits since LBJ launched the failed War on Poverty (poverty won). The bill includes six months of weekly $400 bonus unemployment benefits on top of the normal weekly benefits, a $3,000 per-child tax credit, an expansion of food-stamp and rental-assistance benefits, $2,000 per person checks, and expanded health-care benefits. A family of four with two unemployed parents will be eligible for benefits ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 (with no payroll tax) in benefits on an annualized basis. In other words, the stimulus pays most unemployed people more money not to work than to go back on the job. This isn’t a safety net, it’s more like a hammock. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-many-jobs-will-the-stimulus-kill-11614295867?st=4nfb63vvmk6qa6w&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink  |
| 2) $15 Minimum Wage Dead – Will GOP Agree to $10? In the end, it wasn’t Joe Manchin who stripped the Democrats’ $15 minimum wage from the BidenBucks spending bill. It was the unelected Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth McDonough, who ruled that it was extraneous to the budget process and therefore could not be included without 60 votes.  https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-waits-for-minimum-wage-ruling-from-parliamentarian-11614266273?mod=djemalertNEWS White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said they would not support any effort to overrule or circumvent the decision. “We will work within the rules of the Senate and get the bill passed,” he said. This means a minimum wage hike can only pass Congress if Repubs in the Senate go along. We note with dismay that Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton have introduced a bill to go to $10 and index the minimum wage for inflation. We wish every Republican understood that wage and price controls are always and everywhere a terrible idea. As the New York Times once editorialized: “The Correct Minimum Wage is $0.00.” |
Subscribe to receive our full hotline