Ari Fleischer: 'Big government is back' under Biden

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Ari Fleischer: Biden bringing back 'big government, big spending'

Former White House press secretary and FOX News contributor reacts to President Biden's remarks on the economy

President Biden's approach to tackling the economic crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic shows that "big government is back" in Washington, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday. 

Fleischer and "The Next Revolution" host Steve Hilton joined Martha MacCallum on "The Story" with reaction after Biden signed executive orders to increase food aid, protect job seekers on unemployment, and clear a path for federal workers and contractors to receive a $15-per-hour minimum wage.

ARI FLEISCHER: He [Biden] said we're going to grow the economy with these investments. Big spending has never grown the economy. It's grown the government. It hasn't solved people's problems. If you want to solve people's problems now, do it by going after COVID to reopen the economy as fast as possible ... The president is empathetic and that's good, but empathy is not what people need. They need their jobs back. 

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The president talks about raising the minimum wage and making sure no one's in poverty again. Doesn't that sound good? The poverty level for one individual in America is $12,760. The president is talking about paying Americans on an annualized basis at least $30,000 a year. That's what a $15 minimum wage translates to. So if there's two people in a family, that's $60,000 at least. And the poverty rate for a family of four is $26,200. These are job-killers and it's big government, big spending, old-time liberalism.

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STEVE HILTON: I listened to the president there with a rising level of frustration, even anger. He's absolutely right about how many millions of people in this country are hurting and suffering ... but why are they hurting and suffering? Because of the lockdowns. These lockdowns are not just cruel, they're actually counterproductive because they even make the virus worse. Here in California, where outdoor dining is shut down, sending people back indoors is where they catch the virus

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We didn't hear anything about reopening the economy. And worse than that, what we actually are getting from this administration are incentives to keep the lockdown going. It's kind of like a lockdown bailout, especially to the blue states run by Democrats, like California, like New York, where they love all this. They love the big government that Ari's talking about. And Joe Biden is just giving them incentives to keep it all going instead of to reopen the country and help those people for real.