Republicans play games with jobless benefits

Today's column by DeWayne Wickham highlights one example of Republican nonsense:

Shortly before the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate rose from 9.6% in October to 9.8% in November, MSNBC commentator Mike Barnicle asked [Republican John] Shadegg, a leading member of the right-wing Republican Study Committee, whether extending the unemployment payments that were about to expire would produce a more immediate benefit to the economy than extending a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans?

..."The truth is the unemployed will spend as little of (their jobless checks) as they possibly can," he said. That's right, Shadegg, who comes from a state that pays the second-lowest unemployment benefits in the nation, said that. He thinks the nearly 2 million jobless Americans who will lose their benefits by Christmas if Congress doesn't extend those payments are more likely to squirrel away that money than spend it.

I think that's nonsense. Marc Morial thinks it's "hocus pocus" economics. "The marginal propensity for the unemployed to spend their unemployment compensation is very high," the National Urban League president told me. "It's pre-K economics that people will spend unemployment compensation payments on the necessities of life."