30 million workers have had their financial lifeline cut off, and talks are stalled. But this isn't because "Congress" is dysfunctional; it's because *Republicans* are wedded to nonsense economics 1/

I don't mean that they adhere to doctrines I disagree with; I mean that they have no coherent doctrine at all other than visceral dislike for helping people in distress 2/

The claimed GOP objection to extending aid to the unemployed is the belief that it discourages workers from accepting jobs. In reality, all the evidence suggests that under current conditions that just isn't happening 3/ https://twitter.com/ernietedeschi/status/1289919537538674689

But even if it were happening, we have 30 million workers receiving benefits and only 5 million job vacancies. What jobs would workers take if they wanted to work? 4/

More generally, unemployment benefits might raise workers' reservation wages — the wages they demand to take jobs. But higher wages in the economy as a whole don't directly reduce employment, as Keynes explained long ago 5/ http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300071h/chap19.html

They only matter if you have a fixed money supply or if the central bank is worried about inflation, neither of which is remotely the case right now 6/

What about GOP opposition to temporary aid to states and cities? You don't even have to be a Keynesian to see that this is bad economics. It makes no sense to impose severe cuts in government services in the face of a known temporary revenue loss/ cost increase 7/

We should be helping states in a pandemic for the same reason governments pay for wars in part by borrowing: the needs are temporary and it's inefficient to cover them entirely by slashing nondefense spending and/or raising taxes 8/

In short, there is no economic theory or logic behind the Republican position. It's all about being mean-spirited and/or cynically exploiting a crisis to force governments to shrink 9/

And for what it's worth, I think Dems should hang tough. Republicans should be begging Dems to help them avoid catastrophe three months before an election. They have no business demanding that Dems do it their way. Appropriate stance for Pelosi: 10/