At this point, it seems a virtual certainty that Republicans will refuse to provide any significant aid to fiscally desperate state and local governments. And it's worth thinking about just how much folly that involves 1/

Many people, including Fed officials, have emphasized the point that state/local austerity will delay recovery, the way it did in 2010-15. But the business cycle isn't the only issue. We're also gratuitously damaging our future 2/

What, after all, do state/local governments spend on? Around 40% is education or infrastructure; a substantial part of the rest is spending on children 3/

So think of the coming cuts as involving savage reductions in investment in the future: we'll have worse nourished, less healthy, worse educated children, who will become less productive adults, plus worse roads and other social capital 4/

And we're slashing investment in the future at a time when real borrowing costs are negative — basically, savers are begging the government to put their money to some productive use. In short, what's about to happen is stupid as well as cruel 5/