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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 unintentionally yield negative outcomes, such as when they discourage work and keep families trapped in government programs for too long. That’s the message of a…
December 23, 2025
The Policy Lessons from Minnesota’s Massive Welfare Fraud
Numerous reviewers have spotlighted shocking welfare fraud perpetrated by members of the Somali community in Minnesota. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel (“The Lesson of Minnesota’s Fraud”) recently described how “Somali fraudsters bilked taxpayers out of more than $1 billion” while arguing the policy lessons extend well beyond Minnesota’s border. She’s right about…
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 the recipients, politicians, the economy, racism, or even capitalism. But few focus on perhaps the most obvious factor – government programs themselves, which actively discourage…
December 2, 2025
Stranded by the Safety Net: How to Fix the Benefit Cliff Problem
Key Points Executive Summary The US safety net should help low-income families meet their immediate needs while supporting their long-term upward mobility. Yet certain program rules—especially those that create “benefit cliffs”—often do the opposite by discouraging work and trapping families in poverty. At its core, a benefit cliff occurs when government benefits decrease too abruptly…
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 low-income families—or in recent weeks not paid. For all that attention on food stamps, however, almost no one has mentioned what once was the nation’s…
October 21, 2025
Reliability of Government Data Often Requires Asterisks, a Hazard That Predates Liberal Gripes About Trump Manipulating Statistics
Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh this year matched what once stood as a signature baseball record: Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs for the 1927 Yankees. Roger Maris first surpassed Ruth’s record, hitting 61 homers in 1961, but for decades his achievement was accompanied in record books by the most famous asterisk in history. Maris played a 162-game season, the asterisk…
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 fearmonger.” Experts on the left predictably objected, but Trump can point to support from an unexpected place: The Democrat-aligned group Third Way. In a recent memo, the center-left think tank…
September 23, 2025
A Second Reconciliation Bill Should Focus On Reducing Deficits
Republicans on Capitol Hill are starting to debate a second budget bill, following the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by President Donald Trump on the Fourth of July. That law extends and expands the first Trump tax cuts, which overall increase already large deficits projected ahead. Meanwhile, news accounts suggest Republicans are having…
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 years. Democrats vilify the changes as “devastating,” never mentioning they will mostly shrink still-bloated welfare caseloads closer to pre-pandemic levels. And by focusing some of…
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 the new law also is noteworthy for leaning on key welfare reforms with a proven track record of success. Those policies—namely, applying work requirements and creating a financial…