If you look at the geographic variation in long-term unemployment, it's really striking. There are pockets where employers don't want to go, but for some reason, in part because of adequate safety nets, people don't want to leave.

Today we hear that the gains from economic growth accrue to the highest-income earners while the standard of living of the poor and middle America stagnates and the gap between the richest and the poorest grows ever wider. That portrait of the country is wrong.

There are folks who we have a moral responsibility to help, who are going to cost the taxpayers lots of money in the future, so there's a strong argument for us to help them with current cash.

Kevin Hassett Quotes