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December 2, 2025

What To Do About Benefit Cliffs?

Everyone wants poor families to work their way off welfare and ascend the income ladder. Yet an increasing number remain trapped on government benefits, struggling to support themselves. Some blame…

December 2, 2025

Stranded by the Safety Net: How to Fix the Benefit Cliff Problem

Key Points The safety net for low-income families aims to offer temporary and targeted assistance so that, among other things, work-capable individuals and families can achieve their economic goals. Too…

November 10, 2025

The Welfare Program You Never Heard About During the Shutdown

Americans have heard plenty about how, effective November 1, the federal government shutdown suspended regular food stamp payments to 42 million individuals. Food stamps are important welfare benefits paid to…

September 23, 2025

Trump Halts ‘Food Insecurity’ Report — Because Democrats’ Doublespeak Is Falling Flat

Last week President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Department canceled the government’s annual Household Food Security  survey — arguing the “nonstatutory report has become overpoliticized,” and amounts to “subjective, liberal fodder” that does “nothing more than…

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…

August 8, 2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill Includes Conservative Welfare Reforms Worth Expanding

Republicans have plenty to tout in their One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), including its extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, improved border security, and strengthened national defense. . .But…

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…

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 19, 2025

The Case for Shifting More Welfare Costs to States

As part of Congressional Republicans’ drive to craft “one big beautiful bill” reflecting Donald Trump’s tax and spending agenda, the House Agriculture committee on May 14 approved several proposals that…

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…