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September 3, 2024
On September 10, the United States Census Bureau will release what is arguably 2024’s most important economic data. We will learn for the first time whether families’ economic well-being improved in 2023: Did wages outpace inflation and deliver real income gains for middle-class families? Did a strong labor market help families escape poverty? Did income…
June 18, 2024
Years ago, I worked at the Pew Charitable Trusts on something called the Economic Mobility Project. In 2009, we commissioned a survey covering opportunity, mobility, and the American Dream. One revealing question we asked was the following: The term American Dream means different things to different people. Here are some ways some people have described…
May 20, 2024
Indivar Dutta-Gupta and Scott Winship talked about the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” speech and the war on poverty.
March 28, 2024
Abstract The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, which the US House of Representatives passed on January 31, 2024, and the Senate is now considering, would make important changes to the child tax credit (CTC) if enacted. The legislation would increase CTC payments for families with lower earnings, apply a one-year…
February 27, 2024
H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, passed the House on January 31, 2024 and now faces an uncertain fate in the Senate. The bill is intended to offer something for both Republicans and Democrats—business tax cuts and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). But this bargain—which…
January 29, 2024
The Wyden-Smith proposed tax legislation would make four changes to the Child Tax Credit (CTC). First, it would increase the cap on the refundable portion of the CTC, eventually to the same amount as the maximum non-refundable CTC. Second, it would begin indexing the maximum non-refundable CTC with inflation. Third, it would apply a one-year lookback for…
December 12, 2023
Event Summary On December 12, AEI’s Scott Winship and former Trump administration officials Ja’Ron Smith and Chris Pilkerton discussed how policymakers can improve the lives of people in underserved communities across the country. Mr. Smith and Mr. Pilkerton began with a presentation connecting President Abraham Lincoln’s opportunity agenda with traditional conservative economic philosophy. They explained…
October 17, 2023
COSM scholars and AEI affiliates include some of the nation’s foremost experts on poverty measurement. On October 17, COSM gathered several of these scholars to provide a primer on opportunity in the United States. Angela Rachidi began by exploring the meaning of poverty, outlining the most fundamental decisions in measuring it and describing how different…
September 15, 2023
On Tuesday, the Census Bureau released its latest income and poverty estimates covering calendar year 2022, including two assessments of poverty in America. One, called the Official Poverty Measure (OPM), focuses on earnings and cash-like government benefits, such as Social Security, unemployment, and welfare checks. A second, known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), also…
July 2, 2021
Key Points Read the PDF. Executive Summary The US Census Bureau publishes the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) each year to provide important information on low-income Americans’ well-being. In early 2021, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) panel formed to evaluate and recommend improvements to the SPM. To inform the NASEM panel and…