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August 2, 2024
Democrats’ Automatic Stimulus Proposals Undermine the Administration’s “Strongest Economy” Claims
Today’s US jobs report finds the nation’s unemployment rate increased to 4.3 percent in July. According to a measure often cited by liberal policymakers, that suggests the US has entered…
July 17, 2024
Key Takeaways from a New Report on Potential Unemployment Insurance Reforms
…policy recommendations,” but instead “is intended to provide policymakers, advocates, and the media with a range of thoughts” on the broad range of UI reform topics the task force reviewed. I…
June 27, 2024
New Legal Roadblocks for Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Crusade
Last fall President Biden announced his “Plan B” for student loan cancellation after the Supreme Court ruled his initial efforts unconstitutional. Plan B, named the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan,…
June 17, 2024
Fixing the Roof on Sunny Days—and Other Lessons in Administering Unemployment Benefits
…capacity risks repeating those failures. But first, lawmakers must determine what sufficient administrative funding means, who should get it, and how to pay for it. Current formulas—under the UI program’s…
May 29, 2024
Liberals Should Decide Whether Being a Homemaker Is Demeaning or Worthy of Huge New Government Benefits
…a mother.” Many liberals seemed horrified—and apparently unaware that liberal lawmakers have long promoted homemaking over paid employment. In response to Butker’s remarks, Change.org circulated an online petition that suggested his comments “reinforce harmful…
May 29, 2024
Holding out Hope for a Left-Right Consensus on Federal Student Lending
…Earlier this month, the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity’s (FREOPP) Preston Cooper and Beth hosted a webinar to discuss a recent report the three of us co-authored on the potential for expanding the…
April 29, 2024
New “Scorecard” Report Promotes Better Use of Data to Prevent Unemployment Fraud
…blocks, policymakers can’t know if state UI systems are prepared for future shocks—and whether providing expanding federal assistance will, as lawmakers intend, reach citizens in need or instead be siphoned…
April 26, 2024
Washington, District of Benefit Cliffs
As the welfare state expands while policymakers struggle to contain its costs, one unintended result is the creation of significant benefit cliffs. A little-noticed September 2023 report authored by Elias Ilin and Alvaro Sanchez…
April 17, 2024
Fiscal Sanity Please, Senators
…over $34 trillion. Our debt to GDP ratio is over 97% and could hit unsustainable levels far sooner than official estimates think. Passing Wyden-Smith with an expanded RECA only compounds these problems. Federal policymakers…
April 10, 2024
Biden Irresponsibly Encourages Borrowers to Enroll in SAVE Plan
…millions of students expecting loan forgiveness high and dry. As Beth wrote last year, “Biden and his progressive allies promised loan forgiveness that almost every legal expert knew would be stopped cold…