Skip to Content
IRS Whistleblowers, click here to contact the Ways & Means Committee about waste, fraud, and abuse.

Smith: Stuck Labor Force Reveals False Advertising by the Biden Administration on the State of the American Economy

February 3, 2023 — Blog    — Press Releases    — Work and Welfare   

WASHINGTON, DC – House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) issued the following statement on the January jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“Only days away from President Biden’s State of the Union address, the true state of America’s economy isn’t measuring up to the Biden Administration’s false advertising. Any job growth is good news, but labor force participation is still disappointingly below pre-pandemic levels and the economy is being weighed down by Democrats’ deficit spending triggering a vicious cycle of historic inflation leading to ever higher interest rates.

“Democrats’ war on work made sitting at home and collecting a check more profitable than getting a job. Better policies are needed for stronger job and wage growth. That is why the Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on the state of the American economy in West Virginia next week to hear directly from American workers and small business owners about their ideas to create more jobs and get more workers off the sidelines and back into the labor force.”

READ: Chairman Smith Announces Hearing on the State of the American Economy: Appalachia

Key Points:

  • Latest JOLTS report shows there are 2 job openings for every unemployed person.
  • The labor force participation rate, 62.3 percent, is the lowest rate since Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
  • The Democrats’ American Rescue Plan spent $400 billion to pay people not to work.