Welcome to Our Research Archive
Search and filter by content type, issue area, author, and keyword
- ✕ Clear Filter
- Benefit Cliffs (1)
- Child Welffare (1)
- Economic Security (6)
- Education (1)
- Family (1)
- Featured (4)
- Fraud (2)
- government spending (1)
- Immigration (1)
- medicaid (1)
- National debt (1)
- Safety Net (84)
- SNAP (2)
- Social Capital (1)
- Tax & Transfer Policies (1)
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (2)
- Unemployment (1)
- Unemployment Insurance (1)
- Welfare (6)
- ✕ Clear Filter
- Angela Rachidi (64)
- Beth Akers (1)
- Brent Orrell (4)
- Bruce D. Meyer (11)
- Howard Husock (8)
- James C. Capretta (1)
- James Pethokoukis (3)
- Kevin Corinth (47)
- Kyle Pomerleau (6)
- Leslie Ford (6)
- Matt Weidinger (84)
- Michael R. Strain (3)
- Nicholas Eberstadt (1)
- Paul Ryan (1)
- R. Glenn Hubbard (1)
- Richard Burkhauser (8)
- Richard V. Burkhauser (2)
- Robert Cherry (2)
- Robert Doar (8)
- Ryan Streeter (1)
- Scott Winship (26)
- Stan Veuger (3)
- Timothy P. Carney (2)
- W. Bradford Wilcox (3)
- Yuval Levin (3)
January 21, 2026
Funding the Administration of Unemployment Benefits: Overview and Reforms to Improve Efficiency and Program Integrity
Executive Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant flaws in the nation’s unemployment insurance (UI) system, which resulted in the improper payment of at least $191 billion—and potentially upwards of $400 billion—in taxpayer funds. The direct causes of those extensive losses included the poor design of temporary federal benefit programs, which opened the door to abuse,…
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…
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 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…
July 17, 2025
Even after the One Big Beautiful Bill, Loopholes Allow Illegal Alien Adults to Receive Welfare and Other Benefits
One major set of policies Republicans touted in their One Big Beautiful Bill (now officially Public Law 119-21, signed on July 4, 2025) sought to end government benefit payments to illegal aliens. But while the new law advances that agenda, such as by preventing illegal alien parents from receiving federal Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments,…
July 1, 2025
More Information Sharing Means Fewer Taxpayer Losses to Fraud
Last month, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduced a resolution of inquiry objecting to the Trump administration’s development of a “centralized database” that “compiles American citizens’ personal information across federal agencies and departments.” The resolution states that personal information includes “confidential taxpayer, identity, wage, child support, bank account, student loan, health, medical, financial, or other information.” Left unsaid…