From Paul Krugman’s book on macroeconomics:

“Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect… . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of “Eurosclerosis,” the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

This could be what Delay is referring to. Delay should never rely on people from NYT for quidance.

I am not supporting Delay just pointing out classical econ does have this as a idea.