If you think you can get away with killing blue collar jobs in the US, you’ve got another thing coming! Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri took Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to task at a Senate Energy Committee hearing Tuesday.
He berated her for insinuating that workers shouldn’t be concerned about her department’s decision to block a major mining project because there were other blue collar jobs available.
The exchange occurred as the two discussed the Interior Department’s decision to impose a moratorium on mining in the Boundary Waters Area watershed in Minnesota, essentially killing the proposed Twin Metals mine, which would primarily extract copper and nickel, according to Reuters.
Haaland defended the decision on the grounds that the moratorium would protect “valuable” ecological resources, prompting Hawley to interject that jobs for blue collar workers and industrial independence from China were “valuable resources” too. He asked the secretary why those things were less important than the administration’s “radical” climate change agenda.
“Senator, I know that uh… there’s like 1.9 jobs for every American in the country right now, so I know there’s a lot of jobs…” said Haaland.
Hawley was incredulous. “Wait a minute, you’re telling me – you’re telling me we’ve got too many jobs in the country?” he asked.
Haaland responded that the agency was “working hard” and had processed 20 mine or mine modification permits since January 2021. The agency is “moving forward, we’re doing our jobs, we’re fulfilling our mission,” said Haaland.
But Hawley wasn’t having it. “You’re sitting here telling me: ‘We’ve got too many jobs in this country, we got gobs of jobs in this country, we don’t need any more jobs in this country,’” Hawley continued. “I wanna take the strongest possible exception to that comment and to that entire mentality … which is when it comes to blue collar workers in this country: ‘You’re on your own … Just shut up and go get a job at McDonald’s y’know? Whatever.’ … I mean Good Lord, that is extraordinary! What an extraordinary response!”
Unfortunately, this is the kind of attitude we can expect from the Biden administration when it comes to blue collar jobs. It’s a complete disregard for the millions of hard-working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet.
The Biden administration is more concerned with pushing their radical climate change agenda than they are with creating jobs and helping people provide for their families.
It is essential that we stand up to the Biden administration and their disregard for the needs of everyday Americans. We must make our voices heard and let the Biden administration know that they cannot ignore the hard-working folks who have been pushed to the sidelines of this economy.
