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January 12, 2026

The “Upward Mobility Act” Seeks to Overcome Benefit Cliffs

Recent scandals in Minnesota have spotlighted billions of dollars lost to welfare fraud across multiple food, health, and childcare programs. Yet even when not being actively ripped off, those programs can still…

September 3, 2025

About Those “Devastating” Welfare Caseload Reductions

Newly-elected President Barack Obama famously lectured opposition leaders that “elections have consequences.” That’s never been more apparent than in recent Republican-crafted changes projected to shrink welfare caseloads in the coming…

July 1, 2025

More Information Sharing Means Fewer Taxpayer Losses to Fraud

Last month, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduced a resolution of inquiry objecting to the Trump administration’s development of a “centralized database” that “compiles American citizens’ personal information across federal agencies and departments.”…

May 6, 2025

What DOGE Flagged as Unemployment Fraud Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg—Most of Which Will Never Be Recovered

The Department of Government Efficiency recently spotlighted unemployment benefits paid to tens of thousands of individuals whose reported birthdates indicated they were either children or dead. One claimant’s birthdate even suggested he or she hadn’t been born yet. As Elon Musk said, “Your tax dollars…

December 3, 2024

Avoiding an Unemployment Loan Bailout

Taxpayers in most states may have dodged a billion-dollar bullet on election day. That is, if the outcome had been different, liberal lawmakers would have been uniquely positioned to bail…

August 2, 2024

Democrats’ Automatic Stimulus Proposals Undermine the Administration’s “Strongest Economy” Claims

Today’s US jobs report finds the nation’s unemployment rate increased to 4.3 percent in July. According to a measure often cited by liberal policymakers, that suggests the US has entered…

July 17, 2024

Key Takeaways from a New Report on Potential Unemployment Insurance Reforms

Yesterday, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) released the final report of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) Task Force, of which I am a member. The task force was created…

May 29, 2024

Liberals Should Decide Whether Being a Homemaker Is Demeaning or Worthy of Huge New Government Benefits

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker struck a nerve. In a commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas, he ventured to female graduates that some “careers in the world” are less fulfilling…

April 29, 2024

New “Scorecard” Report Promotes Better Use of Data to Prevent Unemployment Fraud

Criminals inflicted unprecedented fraud on taxpayer benefits during the pandemic, and some of the most abused programs were those that provided temporary federal unemployment benefits. As we documented in a…

April 26, 2024

Washington, District of Benefit Cliffs

As the welfare state expands while policymakers struggle to contain its costs, one unintended result is the creation of significant benefit cliffs. A little-noticed September 2023 report authored by Elias Ilin and Alvaro Sanchez…