Biden Claims No Evidence Benefits Keeping People At Home

A less than impressive jobs report emerged on Friday of last week, which Biden referenced. “I know there’s been a lot of discussion since Friday’s report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to work,” he said. “We don’t see much evidence of that,” but confusingly followed with “that is a major factor.

He then clarified by noting, “It’s easy to say the line has been because of the generous unemployment benefits that it’s a major factor in labor shortages,” adding “Americans want to work.”

The president retold a story familiar to anyone on the campaign trail about how his father spoke about the importance of being gainfully employed. “As my dad used to say, ‘A job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity, your place in the community, to be able to look at a kid in the eye and say everything is going to be okay.'”

“I think the people who claim Americans won’t work, even if they find a good and fair opportunity underestimate the American people,” Biden clarified. “So we will insist that the laws followed with respective benefits but we are not going to turn our backs on our fellow Americans.”

Biden wrapped this portion of his speech by resetting the scale of the economic issues he inherited and made clear who he feels is to blame.”22 million people lost their jobs in this pandemic through no fault of their own,” he said. “They lost their jobs to a virus into a government that bungled its response to the crisis and failed to protect them.”