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December 27, 2024
DOGE Can Drive Reforms in America’s Broken Safety Net Programs
America’s broken safety net system has over 80 programs, costs $1.6 trillion annually, and perpetually underperforms. It’s inefficient, costly, and perversely functions like a snare net that traps people in…
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…
November 7, 2024
Key Data on Federal Benefits Paid to Illegal Immigrant Households
Soaring illegal immigration during the Biden-Harris administration was a major campaign theme, with a pre-election Harvard poll finding Americans considered immigration the second-most important issue—right behind inflation and ahead of the economy….
March 4, 2024
Exploring America’s Social Safety Net And The Political Fights Around It
…would say from my perspective as a research expert is a resounding no. Matt Weidinger, American Enterprise Institute:I would answer yes. Geoff Bennett:Matt Weidinger, a senior fellow at the conservative…
October 31, 2023
Lawmakers Continue Trying to Revive Pandemic-Style Benefits
In 2008, Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to President-elect Barack Obama, famously issued Rahm’s rule: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that…
July 28, 2023
It Really Is More Expensive to Give Everyone $1 Than to Give Some People $1
In a piece from last year, Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project argues (in the title of the piece) “Universal Benefits Cost Less Than Means-Tested Benefits.” He lays out his central…
July 25, 2023
Not Just Tulsa
…because it was black. Paul Jones, a columnist for the city’s black newspaper, The Pittsburgh Courier, got to the heart of the matter in a way that could be applied to…
June 16, 2023
The Missing Context Behind “Cuts” in Fast-Growing Welfare Programs
Official Washington just completed a heated debate on the debt limit, punctuated by intense partisan differences over strengthening work requirements for key welfare programs. On one side stood House Republicans,…
May 31, 2023
Ending the Small Checks Scam
It’s no secret that strengthening work requirements for key welfare benefits has been a flashpoint in the debt limit negotiations. House Republicans, led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), insisted on including stronger…