Robert Rector, a leading authority on poverty, welfare programs and immigration in America for three decades, is The Heritage Foundation’s senior research fellow in domestic policy.
View all authorsSocietyCommentary
For the past 50 years, the government’s annual poverty rate has hardly changed at all. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15 percent of Americans… Read More
EconomyCommentary
On Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., outlined plans to reform welfare and fight poverty. Ryan’s policies are well… Read More
For a half century, Washington has endlessly enlarged the welfare state, piling one program on top of another, adding layer after layer of spending. In… Read More
On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson used his State of the Union address to announce an ambitious government undertaking. “This administration today, here… Read More
The White House last week released a report claiming that granting amnesty and citizenship to illegal immigrants would increase the income of Americans by $791… Read More
It’s been a pretty big year for welfare—and a new report shows welfare is bigger than ever. The Obama Administration turned a giant spotlight on… Read More
Last night, former President Bill Clinton claimed that President Obama had not gutted welfare reform. Clinton proclaimed that Obama would actually strengthen welfare reform by… Read More
The Obama Administration has created a firestorm by claiming the authority to waive the work requirements of the popular 1996 welfare reform law. But the… Read More
Two Members of Congress demanded an official explanation from Obama’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) for its gutting of welfare work requirements—and HHS responded… Read More
Last Thursday, the Obama Administration quietly issued new bureaucratic rules that overturned the popular welfare reform law of 1996. This was an illegal move, and… Read More
Today, the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy… Read More
The Census Bureau’s new poverty measure is another tool in President Obama’s endless quest to “spread the wealth.” Although the media portray it as a… Read More
Today a new report was released indicating nearly one in five children in the U.S. is poor. The report, from the Annie Casey Foundation, was… Read More
Bob Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claims that the Boehner budget is a form of “class warfare.” He says that “if… Read More
Last week, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that the U.S. just saw the largest annual increase in poverty recorded in our nation’s… Read More
New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show the largest increase in poverty in U.S. recorded history. Under President Obama’s watch, an additional… Read More
Despite its failure last week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is continuing to push his tax-extenders bill. Bundled together with the many egregious pieces of this… Read More
The press has rushed to report a minuscule drop in “teen births” based on data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). As… Read More
Yesterday, a new study was released showing that abstinence education programs were effective in reducing teen sexual activity while conventional safe sex programs had no… Read More
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual poverty report. Every year for nearly three decades, in good economic times and bad, Census has reported… Read More
Being raised by two married biological parents has considerable benefits for a child. By contrast, simple cohabitation by biological parents is highly unstable and does… Read More
