COSM’s commentary page is home to timely analysis of pressing topics.
“Clinics” with suspect professional credentials running up bills for publicly-insured low-income patients. Outlandish claim volumes for questionable services, including unneeded tests and consultations. Harmful and abusive treatment of patients in some cases. And then the understandable outrage in Washington, DC that no one at the state level seems to notice…
March 25, 2026 | By James C. Capretta
Today the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is releasing Opportunity Book, a new online tool that connects policymakers, journalists, and researchers with innovative federal policy ideas. Opportunity Book is a publicly available database that launches with 38 individual policies related to opportunity from…
March 25, 2026 | By Scott Winship and Kevin Corinth
This commentary reviews current means-tested federal benefit programs designed to assist low-income individuals and families. The large number of those programs is amplified by similar state and local programs as well as by closely associated temporary federal programs created during recessions. During the recent pandemic, the number, scope, and spending…
March 23, 2026 | By Matt Weidinger
Despite more than $60 billion in annual federal spending on rental assistance, only one in four eligible families actually receives it. Recipient families receive, on average, more than $1,000 in federal aid each month, and because there is no time limit they typically remain on the program for over a…
March 16, 2026 | By Kevin Corinth
This week, senior House and Senate Members are introducing legislation designed to prevent a repeat of runaway fraud and abuse that afflicted…
March 5, 2026 | By Matt Weidinger
Let me start with the chart: Median pre-tax earnings of men ages 25-29 rose 24 percent ($10,800) from 1973 to 2024, and median post-tax compensation rose 40 percent ($15,500). The gains from 1989 to 2024 were 42 percent ($16,300) and 46 percent ($17,000). A few years ago (2022), I wrote…
February 26, 2026 | By Scott Winship
Matt Weidinger’s December 2025 commentary argued persuasively that complexity has become an impediment to rational reform of the nation’s safety net. By approving scores of new programs across several decades, Congress and the states have assembled such an unwieldy and uncoordinated anti-poverty portfolio that policymakers have difficulty fully grasping what…
February 9, 2026 | By James C. Capretta
Hunger in the United States, as most people understand it, is thankfully rare. According to the most recent Household Food Security in the United States report, approximately 5 percent of US households had “very low food security” at some point in 2024. This measure, defined as reduced food intake due…
February 3, 2026 | By Angela Rachidi
Last week, the Republican Study Committee released a legislative framework intended to make the American Dream more affordable. The goal is laudable, and many of the ideas are sound. But among the ideas that should be sent to the chopping block is a proposal to allow stay-at-home parents to claim…
January 22, 2026 | By Kevin Corinth
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps) is an important safety-net program that helps reduce hunger and decrease poverty among US households. At the same time, SNAP has significant flaws that make it inefficient, less effective than it could be, and in some cases harmful to upward…
January 13, 2026 | By Angela Rachidi
April 11, 2026 | Scott Winship
This piece originally appeared at National Review Online and is reprinted here with permission. Statistics show that the middle class is healthier and more secure than ever before. This week, Michael Brendan Dougherty wrote that he doesn’t think he’s “ever been so depressed” as when he read my recent report with Steve Rose, “The Middle Class is...
March 29, 2026 | Naomi Schaefer Riley
It has been a year since anyone saw Jacob Pritchett. The 11-year-old boy, who is autistic and nonverbal, was reported missing in October. But, as far as anyone can tell, he was last seen through his window on April 2, 2025, by a property manager at his NYCHA apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn....
March 26, 2026 | James C. Capretta
Spending on Medicare and Medicaid is pushing the federal budget to the breaking point, but, in the aftermath of the cuts enacted in the 2025 reconciliation bill, Congress might have difficulty producing another round of necessary savings in the near term. To make continued progress on health care spending restraint while...
March 25, 2026 | James C. Capretta
“Clinics” with suspect professional credentials running up bills for publicly-insured low-income patients. Outlandish claim volumes for questionable services, including unneeded tests and consultations. Harmful and abusive treatment of patients in some cases. And then the understandable outrage in Washington, DC that no one at the state level seems to notice...