Quotation of the Day…

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… is from pages 272-273 of Casey Mulligan’s important 2012 book, The Redistribution Recession: How Labor Market Distortions Contracted the Economy:

The 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is probably the single piece of legislation with the most provisions expanding the safety net. To name a few: it increased unemployment and food stamp benefits; it expanded eligibility for both programs with its “alternative base period” calculation of the unemployment benefit and by granting states relief from the food stamp program’s work requirements; it federally funded extended unemployment benefits, so that employers would not have to pay for the extended benefits received by their former employees. The act’s “recovery” and “stimulus” monikers are ironic because, like other legislation that expanded the safety net, the transfer provisions of the act helped keep labor hours low after the act went into effect.