WASHINGTON – Congressman Vern Buchanan today penned an op-ed in the Washington Times detailing how President Biden and Congressional Democrats’ agenda is contributing to both rising prices and a lack of workers.
“There is a clear and direct connection between too much federal spending and policies that discourage work,” said Buchanan in the op-ed. “This matrix of mistakes fuels inflation, causes Americans to fall economically further behind and robs small businesses of the workers they need to bounce back from the pandemic. It’s time for Democrats in Washington to connect the dots.”
You can read the full op-ed here or below.
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Biden’s war on work is fueling inflation
By Rep. Vern Buchanan
Whether I am talking to my constituents in Florida or my colleagues in Congress, our conversations about the economy all include two common complaints – record inflation is shrinking Americans’ take-home pay and employers can’t find workers.
Many recognize there is a connection between the two. Unfortunately, President Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress do not.
Most economists agree that increasing labor force participation – by getting more workers off the sidelines – is one of the most effective ways to combat skyrocketing inflation. Yet the White House and congressional Democrats’ proposals in Washington only exacerbate both rising prices and a lack of workers.
In 2021, Washington Democrats refused to work with Republicans and instead pursued the American Recovery Act and Build Back Better, two completely partisan spending bills that increased the federal deficit by over $2 trillion. This surge in deficit spending induced the record-levels of inflation that is currently busting the budgets of American families and small businesses across the country.
Simultaneously, Democrats opposed practical proposals that would help women return to work. Female employees were among those most likely to exit the workforce and not come back during the pandemic. They faced multiple challenges from taking care of kids, or in some cases elderly relatives, on top of trying to earn a paycheck to help their families. Finding additional support in the form of day care or expanded family leave policies would have helped many of these women – who often carry the heaviest burden of family care responsibilities – stay in a job or return to the workforce.
Yet instead of working with Republicans to develop flexible, common sense solutions, Democrats chose a “go it alone,” Washington knows best approach – a strategy doomed to fail. Unsurprisingly, these purely partisan Democratic ideas not only stalled in the Senate, but their heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all scheme would actually make paying for child care even more expensive. Under the Democrats’ plan, which amounts to a “toddler tax,” over half of all families with two kids who pay for child care could be faced with as much as $27,000 in additional costs due to new bureaucratic rules.
We can do better. Instead of pursuing a partisan approach, Republicans put forth a proposal and offered to work with the Democrats to design flexible child care and family leave policies built on what the private sector is already doing and incentivize more businesses to offer these benefits to working families.
Enacting these bipartisan solutions would help more women return to the workforce and boost labor force participation. But Democrats chose to ignore our offer to find common ground and pursued a totally one-sided approach – which predictably looks like it’s dead in the Senate.
Finally, last year Democrats also rejected another common sense Republican idea to help get Americans back to work. As the enhanced $600 per week unemployment benefits were scheduled to expire last summer, Republicans offered the creative idea of using some of those resources as a “back to work bonus.” Our policy would have not only offered additional resources during the pandemic, but it would have provided a strong incentive for people to rejoin the workforce.
Again, the Democrats rejected our offer.
As our economy continues to recover, President Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress have regularly picked unnecessary fights and failed to seek common ground. Through their “one party rule” approach to solving problems, they have failed to fill a gaping hole in the labor force, turned their backs on millions of Americans trying to find meaningful work and were unable to repair the damage this virus has inflicted on our economy.
There is a clear and direct connection between too much federal spending and policies that discourage work. This matrix of mistakes fuels inflation, causes Americans to fall economically further behind, and robs small businesses of the workers they need to bounce back from the pandemic. It’s time for Democrats in Washington to connect the dots.
Rep. Vern Buchanan represents Florida’s 16th District and is the co-chairman of the bipartisan Florida delegation. Buchanan is second in seniority on the Ways and Means Committee after Leader Kevin Brady.
