As labor crisis worsens, state offers $1,500 to residents who get back to work

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills is bribing unemployed people to rejoin the workforce by offering a $1,500 bonus to eligible individuals who get off their sofas and back to work between now and June 30.

People who return to work starting in July could get a $1,000 bonus payment.

In a Monday statement, Mills said "it's safe for everyone to return to work" as the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

The incentives are part of the state's "Back to Work” program, which "will utilize $10 million in Federal funding and could reach up to 7,500 Maine people," Mills said.

Did you get that? The governor is Maine is offering federal tax dollars -- courtesy of you and me -- to beg unemployed people in her state to get back to work.

If you're wondering why jobless Americans now have to be bribed to work, it's because the Biden administration's expanded unemployment benefits program pays many people more money to sit at home.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina last week called the bloated unemployment benefits into question, saying they're exacerbating the labor shortage crippling the nation's economic recovery.

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Graham said people in his own family are not working because the benefits are so high.

“Bottom line is I think there are people out there, they’re not bad people, but they’re not going to work for $15 an hour if they make $23 unemployed,” he added.

The worker shortage has snowballed in the last few months, according to a June 1 report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The report said the "most critical and widespread challenge facing businesses right now is the inability to hire the qualified workers they need."

In March, there were 8.1 million job openings in the United States -- a record high. "That’s up more than 600,000 from February," the Chamber reported.

Brian Brenberg, a professor of economics at The King's College in New York, said the labor shortages will continue until the government stops incentivizing people to not work.

"You just got to stop paying them not to work," Brenberg told Fox Business in May. "One of the reasons [for the worker shortage] is because we're paying people extra not to work."

He said small businesses simply cannot compete with the federal government for workers.

"Businesses do have to bid up their wages to get workers, but they shouldn't be bidding against the federal government, who's handing out expanded unemployment benefits," Brenberg said. "That's not fair."

In today's upside-down America, Democrats think you can fight racism by being racist, deter crime by defunding police, and get the economy back on track by paying people not to work.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.