In an interview Friday on Fox Business Network, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao took head on the notion that persistent, high unemployment is the new way of life in America. Chao says it doesn’t have to be that way:
This administration is trying to say that there’s a new norm, and that we’ve got to get used to an unemployment rate in excess of 9 percent, and that is simply not true.
The economic conditions are effected greatly by government policy, and if the government spends too much, borrows too much, taxes too much, and also regulates too much, there’s an impact on the economy.
I think the people in Washington and the White House today really believe that they control the economy, and that’s really wrong because it’s the private sector that creates jobs. The proper role of government is to create the environment through which job growth can occur through the private sector.
