June 8, 2023
Flawed Approach: The Working Families Tax Cut Act as a Response to Inflation
Earlier this week, Congresswomen Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Michelle Steel (R-CA), who are both members of the House Committee on Ways and Means, introduced the Working Families Tax Cut Act. The bill would temporarily increase the standard deduction by $2,000 for single filers and $4,000 for married filers in 2024 and 2025. However, this increase would phase out for…
June 7, 2023
How ‘Negativity Bias’ Skews the Conversation About Artificial Intelligence
Just as I was preparing an article titled “Calm Down About Artificial Intelligence”—one in a series—Marc Andreesen has preempted me with an 18-page blog post inventorying the main threads in the “AI doom-loop” and why these concerns are either wrong or substantially overblown. In fairness, Andreesen is open to the criticism that he is engaging in…
June 1, 2023
Will Chat Tech Help the Neuro-Divergent Find Their Place in Society?
The lament that digital technologies and social media are contributing to an epidemic of loneliness and conflict is ubiquitous. Whether these technologies caused or exacerbated these challenges is hard to unpack. My view is America’s sociability crisis was already advanced before Facebook, Twitter and other technology companies figured out how to monetize loneliness by providing…
May 30, 2023
Two Sentences Will Strengthen SNAP’s Support for Work
The debt ceiling deal, agreed to by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, will improve the federal safety net’s effectiveness in helping people rise out of poverty. It modestly enhances work requirements to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which is federal cash welfare, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as…
May 30, 2023
Interest in Democratic Values is High Outside Urban Cores
With the COVID-19 pandemic declared over, a significant question for politicians, planners, and pundits alike is what to do with city centers and old urban cores after the pandemic pushed many Americans to move away from dense urban areas. For many, the central city remains an idealized version of spatial organization, serving as an engine of…
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…
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…
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…
May 11, 2023
The House Acts to Recover More Pandemic Unemployment Fraud
FacebookTwitterLinkedIn This week, the House is considering Republican-authored legislation (H.R. 1163, the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act) designed to promote more recovery of fraudulent unemployment checks paid during the pandemic, among other purposes. That’s long overdue, since little of potentially $400 billion in such misspending—including an estimated $60 billion or more in fraud, according to the Government Accountability Office—has…
May 4, 2023
Work Is Essential to the American Dream
Work is one of the foundations of American life. Almost always, being employed and earning income gives individuals the opportunity, responsibility, and community they need to flourish. The broader importance of work can’t be overstated. A larger workforce also contributes significantly to our general prosperity allowing us to afford, among other things, a more effective…