To make sense of the benefits disaster, you have to realize that Republicans don& #39;t understand that lack of sufficient demand can cause mass unemployment. I don& #39;t mean that they& #39;ve rejected that view; they don& #39;t even know where it comes from 1/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/31/congress-bailout-unemployment-insurance/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bailout-1230p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans">https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy...

Larry Kudlow, who is for our sins Trump& #39;s top economist — and long a go-to-guy for the GOP in general — said some revealing things in 2006, with no indication he& #39;s learned anything since 2/ https://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/08/kudlow_needs_he.html">https://economistsview.typepad.com/economist...

In his view, higher output means lower inflation, because money is chasing more goods. Not a hint that he understood that output might be depressed because of insufficient spending, or even that he understood the concept. "I don& #39;t get it," he declared; that at least was true 3/

So the whole GOP lives in a mental universe in which the only reason people might be unemployed is because they don& #39;t want to work, or maybe because employers pay too much taxes. The idea that cutting off income for millions will lead to more unemployment isn& #39;t in their minds 4/

And what they don& #39;t know can very much hurt you, and almost everyone else 5/