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January 10, 2024
Even Congress’s “Tax Extenders” Are About More Benefits
Congress’s long list of unfinished business for the new year includes “tax extender” legislation, which is normally considered before lawmakers adjourn for the holidays in December. The fact that this…
December 1, 2023
Making the Child Tax Credit “Fully Refundable” Converts It into Welfare Checks
…According to press reports, policymakers are apparently negotiating a possible year-end tax package that would temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and revive certain business tax breaks….The CTC expansion reportedly includes full…
November 21, 2023
Defining Poverty Up
…and destructive behavior” such as soaring out-of-wedlock childbearing behind increased welfare dependence. Policy-makers responded to Moynihan’s call, and the bipartisan 1994 crime bill (which Moynihan supported) and 1996 welfare-reform law…
October 31, 2023
Lawmakers Continue Trying to Revive Pandemic-Style Benefits
…[is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Lawmakers applied Rahm’s rule liberally during the pandemic, providing record stimulus checks, massively expanding unemployment benefits, and far…
October 12, 2023
Now the Administration Is Legislating on Welfare, Too
…treads much of the same legislative ground as recent congressional reauthorization proposals. That should trouble members of Congress in both parties who value their institutional role as lawmakers—not administration regulation-followers….
September 29, 2023
Solutions to Reduce Government Improper Payments Involving Unemployment Benefits
…approximately one in every seven dollars in benefits paid. Policymakers owe American taxpayers an explanation for this unprecedented abuse, starting with how it occurred and what can be done to…
September 29, 2023
Up To $135 Billion In Pandemic Unemployment Fraud – And Still Counting
…especially two full years after pandemic programs ended. Back-of-the-envelope estimates are helpful, but not nearly good enough to inform policymakers and ensure this disaster never recurs. Finally, as the latest GAO report shows,…
September 15, 2023
Putting This Year’s Poverty Numbers in Context
…subsidies also contributed more to child poverty reduction in 2022 than 2021. As discussed extensively at Tuesday’s AEI event, policymakers and the public are in dire need of a poverty…
September 1, 2023
Despite Staggering Improper Payments, New Labor Department Report Calls for Reviving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
…history of abuse. Policymakers knew PUA was prone to abuse from almost the moment it was created in March 2020. An April 2020 DOL Inspector General (IG) report found that, under the…
August 3, 2023
Another Pandemic Legacy: Removing the EITC’s Work and Earnings Requirement
…growing support for work, some liberal policymakers are now proposing to pay EITC checks even for years when adults don’t work, fundamentally altering the nature of this pro-work program. Total…