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May 30, 2024

The Contradictions in Democrats’ Child Tax Credit Expansion Promises

Politicians regularly vie for the support of parents with promises of good schools, bigger family benefits, and tax relief. President Joe Biden did just that last week in calling for…

May 23, 2024

Vast Vote-Buying Strategy — ‘Like We Have Never Seen Before’ — Is Laid to Democrats by North Dakota’s Governor

Governor Burgum of North Dakota — a potential running mate with President Trump — is warning that, under the Biden administration, there is “vote-buying going on at a scale like we have…

March 11, 2024

How Many Forms of “Wage Insurance” Do We Need, Exactly?

…current safety net programs depicted below that assist low-income parents, along with major social insurance programs and even privately-funded benefits that specifically target non-workers. Source: Angela Rachidi, Matt Weidinger, and…

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…

February 9, 2024

Resolving to Learn Lessons from Record Pandemic Fraud

Congress doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions, but if it did, digesting our new report on pandemic fraud would be a good one. Released last week, the new report (“Pandemic Unemployment Fraud in…

January 12, 2024

Small-Dollar Demonstration Projects Can’t Hide That a National Guaranteed Income Program Would Cost Trillions

Abstract While some have declared that short-term guaranteed income demonstrations (patterned on universal basic income schemes) are working almost universally, such cheerleading misses a major drawback: the enormous costs that…

January 11, 2024

To Better Promote Work, Stop Subsidizing More Benefit Collection

…and work incentives), that would only exacerbate the growing tilt toward benefit collection over work. Current legislative proposals would make matters far worse by permanently ignoring significant new taxpayer-provided benefits…

December 7, 2023

The White House Council of Economic Advisers Contradicts the President’s Poverty Talking Points

Before Thanksgiving, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a blog post titled “The Anti-Poverty and Income Boosting Impacts of the Enhanced CTC.” That’s a reference to the temporary—and now…

December 1, 2023

Making the Child Tax Credit “Fully Refundable” Converts It into Welfare Checks

In what is becoming an annual ritual, news accounts and DC sources suggest liberals’ end-of-year legislative wish list once again includes reviving the worst part of Democrats’ partisan 2021 child tax credit (CTC) expansion….

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…