Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) revealed a different kind of plan to boost the U.S. workforce during a telephone town hall session Wednesday night.
In the clip, circulating Twitter via Heartland Signal, the Republican from Wisconsin referenced the need for more Americans in the workforce.
He even cited an op-ed he had written for the Wall Street Journal back in November of 2021, warning that the shortage in the workforce could ignite stagflation:
I wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal. You can go online, uh, November, 2021, saying that we need about 2.6 million additional workers added to our labor force and our birth rates aren’t producing that.So there are a number of innovative ideas I would support. Former Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) came to the Senate. We were talking about our labor shortage and one of his suggestions was to coax seniors that could reenter the workforce.Don’t charge them payroll tax. They’re not paying it anyway. So, you know, they want to get back and earn a few extra bucks, but let them start working. Don’t charge them payroll tax.
Johnson has previously been under fire for suggesting, in early August, that Social Security and Medicare should be eliminated. He advised instead that the programs fall under the government’s discretionary spending for which Congress could approve a budget for annually:
“What we ought to be doing is we ought to turn
everything into discretionary spending so it’s all evaluated so that we can fix problems or fix programs that are broken, that are going to be going bankrupt,” Johnson said. “As long as things are on automatic pilot, we just continue to pile up debt.”
Johnson is currently seeking a third term in the midterm elections this coming November.
Listen above via Heartland Signal on Twitter.