All Research
Blog Post
How Non-disabled Medicaid Recipients Without Children Spend Their Time
…a good idea. Other factors that policymakers should consider include, for example, impacts on work and other community engagement, government spending, costs to hospitals, and the health and mortality risks…
Blog Post
What DOGE Flagged as Unemployment Fraud Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg—Most of Which Will Never Be Recovered
…projected in fraud involving pandemic unemployment benefits. It gets worse. A recent Department of Labor (DOL) Inspector General report leaves little doubt that nearly all of these losses, which veteran lawmakers have called “the greatest theft of tax dollars in US…
Blog Post
Less Than Half of Medicaid Recipients Work Enough to Comply With a Work Requirement
…policymakers should consider when determining whether to institute a Medicaid work requirement, the form it should take, and to whom it should apply. For example, such factors should include the…
Blog Post
The Family First Act Would Expand Net Income Tax Refunds to Higher Income Families
…families in the top half of the income distribution. At a time when lawmakers are seeking ways to reduce the federal deficit, they should consider whether these changes are prudent….
Blog Post
SNAP and the “Make America Healthy Again” Agenda
…purchase with SNAP, policymakers would not only improve the health of participating households, but it would also likely lead retailers to supply and market their products differently—having impacts far beyond…
Blog Post
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…
Blog Post
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…
Blog Post
Key Takeaways from a New Report on Potential Unemployment Insurance Reforms
…policy recommendations,” but instead “is intended to provide policymakers, advocates, and the media with a range of thoughts” on the broad range of UI reform topics the task force reviewed. I…
Blog Post
Fixing the Roof on Sunny Days—and Other Lessons in Administering Unemployment Benefits
…capacity risks repeating those failures. But first, lawmakers must determine what sufficient administrative funding means, who should get it, and how to pay for it. Current formulas—under the UI program’s…
Blog Post
New “Scorecard” Report Promotes Better Use of Data to Prevent Unemployment Fraud
…blocks, policymakers can’t know if state UI systems are prepared for future shocks—and whether providing expanding federal assistance will, as lawmakers intend, reach citizens in need or instead be siphoned…
Blog Post
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…
Blog Post
Fiscal Sanity Please, Senators
…over $34 trillion. Our debt to GDP ratio is over 97% and could hit unsustainable levels far sooner than official estimates think. Passing Wyden-Smith with an expanded RECA only compounds these problems. Federal policymakers…