September 12, 2022
Section 199A and “Tax Parity”
Key Points Read the PDF. Executive Summary In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a new deduction for business income: Section 199A. This provision allows taxpayers to deduct up to 20 percent of qualifying business income against their taxable income and provides a special tax benefit for “pass-through” businesses—those not subject to the…
August 30, 2022
Biden’s Student Loan Debt Plan is Driven by Politics, Not Economics
On Wednesday, President Biden announced his long-awaited plan to cancel student loans — effectively wiping away up to $10,000 for borrowers with individual income below $125,000 (and couples with joint income below $250,000). The administration’s plan forgives up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients under the same income limits. The move, which will cost taxpayers…
August 10, 2022
A Failure to Respond: Public School Mask Mandates in the 2021–22 School Year
Key Points From September 2021 to late February 2022, school district mask mandates were in place for 61 percent of students in the US.During that period, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance advised all students and teachers to mask indoors, with no flexibility based on local conditions.On February 25, 2022, the CDC adopted…
June 15, 2022
Second Time’s the Charm?
Early last year, Senator Mitt Romney proposed a new approach to family policy that exposed some significant rifts among right-leaning policy wonks who care about fighting poverty and supporting family formation. This week, Romney (together with fellow Republicans Richard Burr and Steve Daines) has offered a revised version of the idea that might just have what it takes…
May 26, 2022
Realizing the Dream: What Does the Success Sequence Have to Do with the Economic Welfare of Black and Hispanic Young Adults?
Event Transcript Event Summary On May 26, a panel of experts discussed a new report published by AEI and the Institute for Family Studies on the effectiveness of the success sequence for minorities and low-income Americans. AEI’s W. Bradford Wilcox and Wendy Wang of the Institute for Family Studies highlighted new data suggesting that, contrary…
February 23, 2022
The Case Against Universal Free Lunch
Key Points Read the PDF. Introduction Who should feed children? Parents or the government? Before the pandemic, more than half of American public school students were eligible for free or reduced price school lunch (FRL).1 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has proposed expanding the program to provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every American public school…
January 20, 2022
Testimony: Incentivize Individual Agency to Achieve Upward Mobility
To Chairman Himes, Ranking member Steil and the distinguished members of the House Select Committee on the Economy, good morning. My name is Ian Rowe. I submit my testimony today as a proud product of the New York City public school system kindergarten through 12th grade, and a graduate of Brooklyn Tech High School, Cornell…
January 3, 2022
Dynamism as a Public Philosophy
The populist turn of the American right over the past decade has created a policy affinity, if not an ideological one, between nationalist conservatives and mainstream progressives. Both camps are energized by a moral narrative about the injustices of corporate greed and the failures of the elite, which expresses itself through support for industrial policy,…
November 16, 2021
The Changing Face of Social Breakdown
Last month, two of my colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute (Brad Wilcox and Lyman Stone), along with co-authors from the Wheatley Foundation and the Institute for Family Studies, published an important new paper on the state of family formation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a fascinating study, well worth your while, which reviews…
October 20, 2021
Public Places and Commercial Spaces: How Neighborhood Amenities Foster Trust and Connection in American Communities
Key Points Read the PDF.