02.07.14

Sessions: Time To Begin National Conversation About Moving People Off Welfare And Into The Workforce

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the state of U.S. labor markets:

“Today’s jobs report provides further evidence of the damage done to labor markets by the slow economic recovery. One of the most troubling factors is the sheer number of people who are completely outside the labor force. Indeed, testimony presented this week in the Budget Committee revealed that the number of people actively looking for work in 2013 decreased by a stunning 13 percent.

We are also falling far short of creating jobs at a sufficient rate to keep pace with population growth. Over the last two months, the economy produced just 188,000 jobs—barely enough to keep up with the 190,000 jobs needed each month to match current population growth.

Sadly, this administration’s policies are continuing to make things worse. The Congressional Budget Office said this week that the President’s health law ‘creates a disincentive for people to work’ and will result in reduced hourly employment equivalent to 2.5 million full-time jobs by the end of this budget window. These disastrous results were predicted by those of us who warned against passing the law in the first place.

President Obama’s big-government vision—one of tax, borrow, spend, regulate, and import more labor—has been proven not to work. The truth is, it will never work. Worse still, it harms the most vulnerable Americans by reducing their wages and trapping them in a cycle of dependency, as the data are showing. Sound policies can reverse these trends. It is time to begin a national conversation about how to grow this economy and move people off welfare, off unemployment, and into good-paying jobs that can support a family.”