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January 31, 2024
The Wyden-Smith Child Tax Credit and Work: Responding to Critics
…Matt Weidinger, recently released an analysis of the incentives built into one overlooked feature of the CTC reforms proposed in the bill—the so-called “look-back” provision. This policy change would allow…
January 29, 2024
Per-Child Benefit in Wyden-Smith Child Tax Credit Bill Would Discourage Full-Time Work for Families with Multiple Children
…children. (In general, the phase-in rate would be 15 percent times the number of dependent children.) In a recent paper, we (with our coauthors Angela Rachidi and Matt Weidinger) provided the…
January 29, 2024
Pandemic Unemployment Fraud in Context: Causes, Costs, and Solutions
Key Points The nation’s unemployment benefits system, which was significantly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, suffered unprecedented losses to fraud and improper payments. Official—and still partial—estimates of improper payments approach…
January 21, 2024
Portland’s Encampment Kids
…need support more than ever.” She was particularly disturbed that the DA’s office is “no longer representing the state in general juvenile dependency matters.” Previously, cases where a child is…
January 19, 2024
The Work Incentive and Employment Effects of Eliminating the Child Tax Credit’s Annual Income Requirement
Abstract Senior House and Senate tax committee leaders agreed to a framework for modifying the Child Tax Credit on January 16, 2024. The most consequential reform would eliminate the Child…
January 12, 2024
Small-Dollar Demonstration Projects Can’t Hide That a National Guaranteed Income Program Would Cost Trillions
Abstract While some have declared that short-term guaranteed income demonstrations (patterned on universal basic income schemes) are working almost universally, such cheerleading misses a major drawback: the enormous costs that…
January 11, 2024
Tax Credit Nation — Politicians Are Casting New Spending As ‘Tax Cuts,’ Hiding Their True Cost
With the national debt soaring past $34 trillion, liberal politicians hoping to expand the federal leviathan face a conundrum. How can they convince Americans wary of the effects of runaway…
January 11, 2024
To Better Promote Work, Stop Subsidizing More Benefit Collection
…and work incentives), that would only exacerbate the growing tilt toward benefit collection over work. Current legislative proposals would make matters far worse by permanently ignoring significant new taxpayer-provided benefits…
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…
January 2, 2024
Billionaire-Built Cities Would Be Better Than Nothing
…China’s move to free enterprise by saying that “it doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.” The California version should be that…