A late night observation, as the House debates the American Rescue Plan.

My Republican colleagues keep justifying their opposition to this desperately needed, wildly popular relief bill by repeating one particular lie.

It's about state and local funding. Here's the deal--
1/

All night House Republicans have called the American Rescue Plan "a blue state bailout," "corrupt," "a progressive wish list," it only spends "9% of its funds" on relief.

They couldn't be more wrong. States and localities are on the front lines of this pandemic and need help. 2/

Nearly a year ago the team of economists and policy analysts I lead at @JECDems identified federal aid to state and local governments as a crucial need to contain the pandemic. Republicans ignored us. State budget deficits - and case counts - exploded. 3/

State and local revenues got crushed early on as businesses closed. Some have seen recent improvement, especially states, but many are still hurting badly. https://t.co/UAeLuTbOP4

It's hitting services and public sector jobs across the country hard. 4/

This has led to massive budget cuts to services like mental health and the social safety net that protects the most vulnerable. Public health is a big part of state and local budgets, especially Medicaid. Two other major expenses seeing big budget cuts: education and transit 5/