Thread by @owenslindsay1

Cutting UI is political suicide, yet Republicans are trying to do just that.

As a sociologist who studied attitudes toward the safety net (and former Hill staffer who fought to expand it), we can offer a simple explanation: Republicans believe the safety net should punish. 1/7

The idea that some unemployed Americans are bringing in a little more in weekly benefits than they did in wages angers many Republicans & cuts against their deeply held belief that only work is valuable. It’s as old as capitalism itself & rooted in the Protestant work ethic. 2/7

But it’s also about race. When it comes to the safety net, it’s almost always about race. White Americans think recipients of safety net programs are primarily Black & that Blacks are undeserving of assistance. Racial prejudice has long driven opposition to the safety net. 3/7

Don’t forget that just this February, the Trump administration put out a deeply racist budget gunning for the safety net. They proposed millions in cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, housing assistance, & programs for people with disabilities. @CenteronBudget 4/7

nytimes.com/2020/02/10/us/…

But attitudes can change. As David Pedulla & I showed in @SF_Journal in the last recession, when people experience unemployment themselves, their preferences for redistributive policies increase. (We had panel data, aka, social science receipts). 5/7

academic.oup.com/sf/article-abs…

Maybe after this pandemic tens of millions of Americans will better appreciate the importance of a strong safety net. A very thin silver lining?

So let’s fight like hell to #savethe600 because all individuals-unemployed, working, neither, Black, brown, white-are deserving. 6/7

H/t to the many doing important work on this topic then and now. @robbwiller @ianhaneylopez @TMendelberg @melissaleesands @RyanDEnos @SeanMcElwee @groundwork @mboteach @IndivarD @NelpNews @hshierholz @equitablegrowth @MichaelSLinden Leslie McCall, Manza & Brooks, Bartels 7/7