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My Point of View by Aaron Farris

All I wanted was simplistic, vanilla ice cream after a long day of work to make the 80-degree weather a little more bearable. I didn’t think that was too much to ask for. The next day, I wanted to get a haircut because my hair was getting the same puffy Tucker Carlson hair vibe it got back when all the haircut places were shut down. No such luck. Both of these places were closed early with signs on their doors or Facebook posts on their pages that said they were having issues getting enough people to show up to work. I won’t even tell you about my $50 trip to the gas station to fill up my tiny little Honda after I found out both these places were closed.

As President Biden continues to dissipate the economic recovery he inherited, Americans are feeling it in their wallets. For the second month in a row, national job numbers fell dramatically below economist projections. Thousands of construction and retail jobs vanished. Even worse, the labor participation rate fell as President Biden and congressional Democrats continue to allow unsustainable unemployment benefits to continue. Now, I’m not saying that all unemployment programs are bad, make people lazy or anything like that. I’m not. What I’m saying is that collecting unemployment checks should not be a more lucrative career than a job. When that’s the case, we get people that don’t want, or need, to come to work. That’s what we have right now in a lot of places. I’ve never seen more “help wanted” or “now hiring” signs in my life. I’m 18 so I know that’s not saying much, but it’s still very concerning that we have so many places looking for help, and we’re running into places that have to close early due to a lack of said help.

About 9.3 million Americans remain unemployed and 8 million Americans were unable to work in May due to lockdowns in Democrat states. While Americans in neighboring Republican-led states like Iowa have been open and getting people back to work, Democrat governors, until very recently, were keeping their states shut down because it was the politically advantageous thing to do. They did this despite the science they claim to support showing that it was safe to open up, drop the mask mandates and have people return to their normal lives. These differences in leadership have shown, and the numbers don’t lie. Republican governors have led their states into stronger positions than they were in 2020, and their constituents are thanking them for it.

Despite so many Americans being unemployed, the price of everyday goods is skyrocketing. Corn is up 30%, and gas is up 25%. Despite those already dramatic levels of inflation, President Biden has proposed $6 trillion in new spending and $3 trillion in new taxes. What we’re seeing right now is a little thing that will be referred to someday by economists as “Bidenflation.” Now, Bidenflation was made possible by the president of the United States and congressional Democrats who don’t seem to understand that they’re spending money we don’t have. Young taxpaying Americans like myself who already have roughly $86,000 of debt to our names on behalf of the U.S. government will have to foot the bill for that debt in our lifetime. According to economists, if President Biden is successful in spending what he’s proposing, “the worst is yet to come.”

Along with inflation, unemployment and a plethora of other things, I would be concerned about us locally here in Albert Lea even if I weren’t a Republican. It seems as if this administration can’t handle a single thing correctly. Even the New York Times (yes, the liberal New York Times) said it: “There is an economic crisis, they say, with rising prices and overly generous unemployment benefits; a national security crisis; a border security crisis, with its attendant homeland security crisis, humanitarian crisis, and public health crisis; and a seperate energy crisis.” Yikes.

While Republican policies have proven successful in spurring economic growth and success, Democrats continue to promote unfettered spending and socialist policies. We are seeing right now in Albert Lea and our neighboring communities with the shortage of people willing to work that giving people checks to stay at home does not support a community but hinders its progress.

People must return to work. We must stop trying to enact socialist policies that have failed every time they’ve been tested and direct our focus to regaining everything that was destroyed during the pandemic. For the sake of America, I truly hope President Biden can do it, but seeing what his priorities are, I highly doubt it. I have much more faith in Republicans to restart America.

Aaron Farris is the vice chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party. He is the party’s youngest officer.