July 17, 2025
Even after the One Big Beautiful Bill, Loopholes Allow Illegal Alien Adults to Receive Welfare and Other Benefits
One major set of policies Republicans touted in their One Big Beautiful Bill (now officially Public Law 119-21, signed on July 4, 2025) sought to end government benefit payments to illegal aliens. But while the new law advances that agenda, such as by preventing illegal alien parents from receiving federal Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments,…
June 17, 2025
Work Requirements For Medicaid Could Increase Income and Reduce Poverty
New Congressional Budget Office figures last week indicate that the reconciliation bill passed by the House and under review in the Senate would reduce annual income among the poorest households by $1,600. The next day, the Urban Institute its own analyses, finding that the bill would throw an additional 1.4 million people into poverty. Much of the…
April 28, 2025
Letter to the Editor: Sugary Treats Shouldn’t Be on the SNAP Menu
Allysia Finley is right to question the logic of allowing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, beneficiaries to spend billions of government dollars earmarked for nutrition on sugary beverages and candy (“Do Food Stamps Make People Fat?,” Life Science, April 21). Critics maintain that government-mandated SNAP restrictions would threaten personal freedom. But SNAP is an…
March 27, 2025
The Looming Debt Crisis, the Trump Tax Cuts, and Medicaid
Let’s start with a chart to understand the dire fiscal situation we are in as a nation. Figure 1. Federal Debt Held by the Public as a Share of Gross Domestic Product, 1940-2054 You’re looking at how sizeable federal debt has been and will be relative to gross domestic product (GDP). From 1960 to 2008, the federal debt held by…
March 11, 2025
Democrats’ DOGE Delusions
While occupied with budget bills to keep the government open and set future spending and tax levels, Congress is also cleaning up past messes. Today, the House is expected to vote on legislation to hold criminals accountable for stealing over $100 billion in pandemic-era unemployment benefits. All agree on the urgent need for action, but Democrats’…
February 25, 2025
We Replaced Families with Uncle Sam. DOGE Must Make the Right Choices When Cutting
If we want a smaller government, we need stronger families. President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size and scope of government through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has the potential to change the trajectory of the nation. But Trump can’t deliver this promise only by cutting wasteful spending. American taxpayers have been forced to fund…
February 14, 2025
Poverty During the Pandemic and the Role of Government Transfers
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted unprecedented policy interventions in the US that provided nearly $3 trillion to support struggling families. This column examines the short-term effects of these interventions on child poverty and finds quite different trends for income poverty and consumption poverty. While disposable income poverty declined dramatically in 2021, consumption poverty fell more gradually,…
February 4, 2025
Snip, Snip: Spending Cuts Are Coming
Republicans’ agenda of cutting taxes and increasing spending on their policy priorities depends significantly on identifying productive spending reductions. But just cutting spending will not be enough. Republicans must also explain how their tax and spending cuts will result in better outcomes for all Americans. The federal debt has exploded to $36 trillion and annual…
February 3, 2025
Legislators Want to Give Tens of Millions of Free Lunches to Students Who Don’t Need Them
Wisconsin state legislators recently introduced a series of bills to help working families across the state. Among these proposals is one that calls for providing free breakfast and lunch for all schoolchildren. At first glance, the initiative seems straightforward and compassionate — after all, who would oppose ensuring children have enough to eat? However, a closer look…
January 7, 2025
Tax Policy Should Prioritize Shoring Up the Family
During the Biden years, tax policy related to the family revolved around the child tax credit (CTC). Attempts to expand the credit to make it easier for two-parent families to have kids and rely on a sole breadwinner were thwarted by objections that a child allowance would also promote single-parent families in which no one…