By Chris Woodward
"The unemployment rate in January and February of 2020 was 3.5%, the lowest unemployment rate we have seen in 50 years," Merrill Matthews, of the Institute for Policy Innovation, tells One News Now.
Those positive figures from a year and a half ago marked record low unemployment for blacks and Hispanics, he adds. Looking toward future employment numbers, Matthews says the Biden administration and their allies in the media are predicting slow improvement over time.
“But I'm not sure we're going to ever hit those again,” he counters, “if President Biden and Democrats are successful in passing their big budget reconciliation bill as that will add lots of new spending, lots of new borrowing, and much higher taxes to the economy."
Matthews insists the federal government should keep the 2017 tax reform bill passed by the GOP-led Congress and President Donald Trump, which he credits as a primary instigator of the good economy before COVID hit.
President Trump ordered his administration to cut bureaucratic red tape and now the Biden administration is imposing regulations that are harming the economy and businesses, Matthews points out.
"The third thing is,” Matthews adds, “you really need to loosen up on the energy sector rather than spending so much money trying to promote green energy and electric vehicles."