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March 5, 2026
Summary and Analysis of the “Stop Unemployment Fraud Act”
…paid, and high-risk identities should be made to complete additional verification steps. Section 3. Preventing Unemployment Compensation Fraud Through Data Matching Summary: This section requires states to certify they use…
March 5, 2026
States Can Strengthen Families and Fight Welfare Dependence and Fraud
For six decades, Washington has waged a War on Poverty with ever‑increasing sums of money. According to the House Budget Committee, federal means‑tested welfare spending now exceeds $1 trillion a year, with more…
March 3, 2026
Tariffs Cannot Fully Replace the Income Tax
…The observation that tariffs cannot replace the income tax is not new. Several experts have made the same point. The math is straightforward: We cannot replace the income tax with tariffs….
February 26, 2026
Young Men’s Earnings over the Long Run – An Update
…inaccurately negative as an empirical matter. Fully 70 to 75 percent of Americans near the age of 40 believe that they have higher real income than their parents did at…
February 25, 2026
On the Federal Deficit, Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit Won’t Be Enough
…in only one corner of the federal budget. But that can’t obscure the bigger picture, which shows how little else matters until Americans and the politicians they elect get serious…
February 13, 2026
What Harvard’s Raj Chetty Overlooks About Upward Mobility
…incarcerated than their counterparts in non-revitalized matched control projects.” (Some 27% of former project residents were guaranteed a “right to return” to housing, through HOPE VI.) What’s more, the key…
February 9, 2026
Medicaid’s Multiple Roles
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,…
January 27, 2026
How to Prevent a Repeat of Massive Fraud and Abuse
…the claimant’s identity and prior work history is confirmed. And claims must be matched against prisoner rosters, death data, and claims filed in other states. All are common-sense measures needed…
January 21, 2026
Funding the Administration of Unemployment Benefits: Overview and Reforms to Improve Efficiency and Program Integrity
Executive Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant flaws in the nation’s unemployment insurance (UI) system, which resulted in the improper payment of at least $191 billion—and potentially upwards of $400…
January 13, 2026
Major Changes Coming to SNAP in 2026
…immediate changes to eligibility determination and quality control operations across states, such as increased scrutiny of documentation submitted by participants, more frequent and reliable matches to income data, and increased…