Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is either completely out of touch, or (more likely) he’s just decided that he can basically say anything and his base will believe it. His latest inane comment came via a speech Tuesday in Paducah, Kentucky, where he suggested that the nation’s labor shortage will come to a striking end when folks run out of stimulus money.
“You’ve got a whole lot of people sitting on the sidelines because, frankly, they’re flush for the moment,” the most loathsome GOPer said, via Business Insider. “What we’ve got to hope is, once they run out of money, they’ll start concluding it’s better to work than not to work.”
As The Root reports, between the Cares Act, the Coronavirus Relief Act, and the American Rescue Plan, Americans received around $3,200 in stimulus payments. Or as Moody’s Analytics reports, an extra $2.6 trillion from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to the end of 2021. But that treasure chest of money has long run out for most Americans, and it certainly isn’t behind the “Great Resignation.”
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The irony, or the dog whistle, is that McConnell opposed President Joe Biden’s stimulus package. If he and his cronies had had their way, Americans—and by Americans I mean those the GOP say are simply sucking off the hind tit of the government—wouldn’t even have had the much-needed $1,400 direct payments at all.
According to Business Insider, a few of the reasons behind the labor shortage include the ongoing fallout from a global pandemic—which is still raging, by the way. People are looking to change jobs and try to make a living wage, because $15 an hour won’t cut it. Jobs with more flexibility and those that offer better options for child care, such as working from home, are being prioritized. Stress is a factor. A desire to be your own boss comes into play for some. And software that appears to be filtering out qualified candidates for available jobs is keeping some people who want jobs out of the workforce. None of these real factors behind the Great Resignation include living off the high hog of a $1,400 stimmie check.
What the Republicans want is for poor people to stay poor, and to give corporations the opportunity to prosper without having to pay their employees a fair wage.
What the pandemic revealed to many working-class Americans is that these companies wanted them on the front lines, but had no intention of improving working conditions for them. The brunt of these failures fall on the already marginalized groups who historically make less money, have fewer benefits and resources, and are more vulnerable to the whims of corporate fuckery. To blame a labor shortage on a two-year-old check that was too small to cover a month’s rent in most cities is plainly an attack on poor and BIPOC people, and McConnell knows that.
McConnell and the party he leads don’t give two shits about American workers. Not about gun violence, bodily autonomy, campaign financing, or the environment. What they care about is staying in power and making money off the backs of workers.
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