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January 9, 2024
Let’s Expand the Child Tax Credit a Little Bit
…child from its current level of $2,000. Some lawmakers want to expand the child tax credit massively. Others don’t. There’s a middle course that involves moderately growing the credit, mostly by folding…
January 9, 2024
The Success Sequence for Unmarried Mothers
…milestones later in life, such as getting married, completing high school, and working full-time, offers families a realistic path out of poverty. Federal policymakers should prioritize these factors when designing…
December 14, 2023
The Myth of the 1%
…new research finds that it may not be true, suggesting that policymakers would do better to focus more on helping the working class. WASHINGTON, DC—For decades, the share of national…
December 13, 2023
Stronger Families, Safer Streets
…light of the preexisting literature on the role of family structure in various life outcomes, these findings may have important implications for policymakers. They suggest the need to encourage more…
December 8, 2023
Room for Compromise on the Hot Foods Act
…foods—such as prepared foods and sugary beverages. When federal lawmakers first created the program in 1939, policymakers chose to allow recipients to purchase any food items except “drugs, liquor, and items consumed…
November 30, 2023
A Valuable New Perspective on America’s War on Poverty
…This relative measure adjusts yearly thresholds in line with median income changes. “The dramatic reduction in poverty by 2019 based on President Johnson’s absolute 1960s standards suggests that policymakers might…
October 5, 2023
Changing the Official Poverty Measure Would Help Rich States and Hurt Poor States
…producing independent and apolitical statistics. Aside from these process related issues, policymakers should be concerned about this matter for two additional reasons. First, as already noted making the SPM the…
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…
June 7, 2023
Don’t Give Away the Farm Bill
…GOP lawmakers should focus on reining in President Biden’s unprecedented and expensive food-stamp hike. The American Rescue Plan’s temporary 15% increase in food-stamp benefits was set to expire shortly after…
December 15, 2022
The Myth of Income Stagnation
…the former. This is not to suggest that wages and incomes have been growing fast enough, or that policymakers should be satisfied with where we are. Increasing participation in the…