| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #173 12/4/2020 |
| 1) Unemployment Keeps Falling You would think that the blue state governors might eventually LEARN from the red state governors. The unemployment rate is a full 2 to 2.5 percentage points lower in red states than blue states – and that is mostly because governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida are keeping things open while governors like Gavin Newsom of California keep shutting everything down. The jobless problem in America today is primarily a blue state phenomenon. Meanwhile, despite a reduction in job creation in November (due to blue state shutdowns) private-sector job growth hit about 330,000 and the national unemployment rate fell to 6.7%. To put this in perspective, the government forecasts were for unemployment of above 14% six months ago. It took Obama Biden five years to get the unemployment rate this low. Trump has done it in six months. Phenomenal! |
| 2) How Trump Saved 4 Million Jobs With Republicans talking about reviving unemployment bonuses — and starting negotiations with Nancy Pelosi at $300 per week — CTUP Co-Founder Steve Moore and Senior Fellow Casey Mulligan sound the alarm in today’s Journal: Congressional Democrats and some Republicans are frantically trying to stitch together another $1 trillion “stimulus” bill. Why? The economy and jobs market have far exceeded expectations of recovery even without the spending spree first proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in July. Since then, employers have added six million jobs—more than the Federal Reserve and the Congressional Budget Office predicted they would. The unemployment rate fell from 13% to 6.9% in six months, no stimulus necessary. We estimate that Mr. Trump saved between three million and five million jobs by refusing to cave in to Democratic demands for six more months of supplemental benefits. What’s the lesson? Extending the $300 weekly bonus benefits for 18 more weeks in the “slimmed down” bipartisan bill would pay almost half of all unemployed workers more for staying home than for going back on the job. We estimate this would reduce employment by about three million to four million workers. Democrats beware: This would happen on Joe Biden’s watch. That’s a stimulus the economy doesn’t need. https://www.wsj.com/articles/unemployment-bonus-proves-its-harm-11607037230 |
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