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May 24, 2023

Don’t Be So Shocked That People Still Want Marriage and Children

Four writers at Curbed, the millennial-run, New York-centric real estate site, undertook an ambitious project. To put a price tag on living in New York, they asked young people to describe their ideal life and then tried to calculate how much it would cost. “We decided to put a price tag on the dream lives of a wide…

By Timothy P. Carney

May 23, 2023

Will Biden Cross a Line on Poverty?

A new report from the National Academy of Sciences seeks to redefine poverty. The NAS presents the effort as a matter of science: “An accurate measure of poverty is necessary to fully understand how the economy is performing across all segments of the population and to assess the effects of government policies on communities and families.” But…

By Kevin Corinth

May 23, 2023

The White House Defender of Welfare Work Requirements

If someone asked you to name a US President who also was a longtime defender of work requirements for welfare benefits, whom might you guess? Ronald Reagan? Donald Trump? George W. Bush? These are good thoughts, but contrary to popular wisdom the answer is a Democrat. That might make you guess Bill Clinton, who signed…

By Matt Weidinger | Angela Rachidi

May 23, 2023

An Unexpected Role for AI in the Workplace

WHEN MICHAEL POLANYI, the underappreciated twentieth-century physicist, philosopher, and economist, is remembered nowadays, it is most often for having observed that much of human knowledge, in both practical and abstract matters, is “tacit” rather than explicit. Most of what we know is not written or verbalized anywhere, yet it nonetheless exists as a foundation for our consciously…

By Brent Orrell

May 23, 2023

Public Housing Should Have Work Rules, Too

Thanks to the debt-ceiling showdown, Republicans appear to have a fighting chance to add a work requirement for those receiving SNAP (food stamp) and Medicaid benefits. They should also turn their attention to another major federal program that fosters dependency and discourages work: housing assistance. Local experiments across the country suggest that requiring those in…

By Howard Husock

May 23, 2023

Biden Courts Another Mortgage Crisis

The Biden administration is making moves that could imperil the safety of the housing finance system. Recent mortgage pricing changes, which have generally decreased fees for borrowers with lower credit scores and increased fees for those with higher scores, have rightly garnered public outcry, but they are the tip of the iceberg. The administration’s other…

By Edward J. Pinto | Tobias Peter

May 19, 2023

House Bill Makes Room for Improvements to SNAP

This week, the House Appropriations Committee marked up a spending bill for the US Department of Agriculture and related agencies, which includes many of the nation’s largest safety net and nutrition programs—most notably, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Although much attention will focus on proposed spending cuts, one under-the-radar spending amendment proposed by House Republicans could…

By Angela Rachidi | Thomas O'Rourke

May 19, 2023

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: America Today

With the expiration of the Covid-era rule justifying the expulsion of illegal border-crossers on public health grounds, the Biden Administration, to the dismay of progressives, has gone Trumpish. Absent “Title 42,” Citizen and Immigration Services will now “presume individuals who entered the United States unlawfully are ineligible for asylum.”   This turnabout brings us back to…

By Howard Husock

May 17, 2023

Is President Biden About to Triangulate Democrats on Welfare Work Requirements?

On Sunday, President Joe Biden signaled his openness to expanding work requirements for key welfare benefits as part of the debt limit deal he is currently negotiating with Congress. Of those work requirements, Biden said: “I voted for tougher aid programs that’s in the law now. . . . And so I’m waiting to hear what…

By Matt Weidinger

May 17, 2023

The Wrong Immigration at the Wrong Time

The ending of Title 42, has again moved immigration to center stage.  With foreign-born as a share of the U.S. population at historic levels, matching the early twentieth century, there is intense conflict over desired policies. Supporters of continued expansive southern border immigration argue that their numbers are crucial to counter the labor shortages that have contributed…

By Robert Cherry