Republicans aren't just rooting for failure anymore. They are actively trying to bring it about. Under the cloak of the Senate filibuster, they are blocking extended unemployment benefits in the hopes of tanking the American economy, believing that if they can make the recession worse, then they can win in this November's election.

Today on the White House blog, Larry Summers posted another reasoned analysis explaining why it is so important that Republicans end their filibuster of unemployment benefits.

The lapse in extended unemployment insurance benefits at the end of May has resulted in 2.5 million jobless Americans exhausting their assistance. If we do not reinstate benefits by the end of the month, this number will grow to 3.2 million. These losses are exacting an enormous human toll on families who count on these benefits as they continue to search for jobs. As the President recently remarked: “Lasting unemployment takes a toll on families, takes a toll on marriages, takes a toll on children. It saps the vitality of communities, especially in places that have seen factories and other anchoring businesses shut their doors. And being unable to find work – being able to provide for your family – that doesn’t just affect your economic security, that affects your heart and your soul. It beats you up. It’s hard.” It is also bad for the economy. But unemployment insurance puts money in the pockets of the families most likely to spend the money – which in turn expands the economy and creates jobs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has identified increased aid to the unemployed as one of the two most cost-effective policy options for increasing economic production and employment. Missed unemployment insurance payments since May total over $10 billion – enough to have created 100,000 jobs. An abrupt and premature withdrawal of relief is not only something families cannot afford, it is something that the economy cannot afford at a time when the economy is at a critical juncture. The economy is finally creating jobs, but not nearly fast enough to close the 8 million-job gap opened by the recession.

Summers's words are unimpeachably correct, but they will fall on deaf ears. The reason is simple: Republicans in Congress simply aren't listening to rational economic analysis. The only thing they care about is that cutting unemployment benefits hurts the economy and they believe hurting the economy will help them win the election.

It's shocking and sad that a major political party would resort to such craven tactics for partisan gain, but it is what it is. And at this point, trying to sit down with them and talk as adults just isn't working. It's time to unleash the facts and call them out for what they are trying to do: wreck the economy to win a campaign.

The only way to get Republicans to the table will be to make them pay a political price for their malicious obstruction, and the best way of doing that is expose them for who they are.