Welfare & Entitlements News

The Daily Signal covers welfare and entitlements with conservative reporting on SNAP and food stamp programs, Medicaid expansion, work requirement battles, poverty reduction strategies, fraud prevention, and the ongoing debate between compassionate reform and perpetual government dependency.
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  • opinion

    A Tax Policy Trojan Horse for Welfare Expansion and Inflationary Deficits
    If you think congressional deadlocks are concerning, just wait until you see what Congress does when it’s in a blinding rush. The House Ways and Means Committee is ready to go from introducing its latest tax bill to House passage in under a week and a half. Though branded as full of middle-class tax cuts…
    Richard Stern | Preston Brashers
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  • opinion

    Republicans Have Second Chance to Strengthen Welfare Work Requirements With Farm Bill
    The media has given outsized attention to minor modifications to work requirements for welfare recipients in the debt ceiling deal between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Such modifications will have a relatively modest impact despite the fact that Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike overwhelmingly support work requirements. That’s why reform-minded politicians should…
    Jamie Bryan Hall
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  • opinion

    Work Requirements in Welfare Programs Take a Hit in Debt Ceiling Deal
    As Congress considers the debt ceiling deal negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, here’s what you need to know about the work requirements in it. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families provisions are harmful and counterproductive. They actually weaken the existing work requirements, overturn the design of…
    Robert Rector | Jamie Bryan Hall
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  • opinion

    Why Work Requirements Are Less About Welfare Savings Than About Human Well-Being
    Most Americans think that work in exchange for government benefits is common sense. For safety-net benefits, work-capable beneficiaries should begin to work, look for work, or participate in education and training at least part time. That’s a reasonable ask and essential to long-term well-being. The Republicans in the House of Representatives get that. The draft…
    Leslie Ford
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  • opinion

    Red States Should Lead Way in Reforming Anti-Marriage Welfare Policies
    When conservatives lament the many ways in which the U.S. welfare system discourages marriage and family formation, it’s usually large-scale federal welfare programs such as public housing or the Earned Income Tax Credit that come to mind.  Most people probably would not think that state-based welfare programs also contribute to anti-marriage bias, but as our…
    Benjamin Paris
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  • opinion

    How Expansive Welfare Benefits Can Make Being on Dole More Lucrative Than Working
    Kids love Santa. They don’t have to work for the stuff on their Christmas lists. He just gives it to them. In many states, gratuitous welfare benefits have made that childhood fantasy an adult reality. Professor Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago and I have found that some families can receive the annualized equivalent of…
    EJ Antoni
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  • opinion

    Welfare Programs Based on Race and Gender Identity Demonstrate Where Institutional Wokeness Is Going
    What happens in Oakland doesn’t stay in Oakland. In 2021, the California city announced a universal basic income program created specifically for so-called BIPOC, or black, Indigenous, and people of color. It was set to give $500 a month to 600 low-income families for 18 months in partnership with a nonprofit organization. Shortly after it…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • news

    ‘Allows Our Borders to Remain Open’: Biden Administration Makes It Easier for Illegal Migrants on Welfare to Stay
    The Department of Homeland Security will make it easier for certain illegal migrants benefiting from certain welfare programs to stay in the country beginning Dec. 23. The “Public Charge” rule, which applies to noncitizens “likely at any time to become a public charge,” will no longer consider certain nutrition, health, and housing benefits for inadmissibility, according to…
    Jennie Taer
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  • opinion

    Biggest Means-Tested Welfare Increase in US History Would Hurt, Not Help, Poor
    Democrats are proposing the largest increase in means-tested welfare in U.S. history by far. The latest Democrat tax-and-spend reconciliation bill (also known as the Build Back Better bill), would increase means-tested welfare spending by $756 billion over the next five years. In addition, the Biden administration has used administrative action to increase permanently food stamp…
    Robert Rector | Jamie Bryan Hall
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  • opinion

    Democrats’ Destructive Spending Spree Would Turn America Into a European Social Welfare State
    Capitol Hill staffers are working around the clock to hammer into some twisted shape a spending bill that warring factions of the Democratic Party will support in their goal to transform America. The cradle-to-grave subsidies in the 2,448-page, $3.5 trillion spending bill that Democrats in Congress are crafting will create a welfare trap for millions…
    Grace-Marie Turner
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  • opinion

    Why Is There So Little Outrage at All of the Corporate Welfare?
    Today’s politicians want to spend more on everything: Amtrak subsidies, sports stadium subsidies, green energy subsidies, even fossil fuel subsidies. President Joe Biden says the handouts will “put more money in your pocket.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims they will “protect the planet for the children.” They might. But a disproportionate amount of the money…
    John Stossel
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  • news

    FCC Commissioner Targets Corporate Welfare for Big Tech
    Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr says the agency should require Big Tech to fund internet infrastructure, following the introduction last week of a bill requiring the FCC to consider collecting contributions from technology companies. The bill—introduced July 21 by Senate Republicans Roger Wicker, Todd Young, and Shelley Moore Capito—instructs the Federal Communications Commission to…
    Ailan Evans
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  • opinion

    Even in a Pandemic, Welfare for the Rich Thrives
    Congress passed the $2.2 trillion HEROES Act. House Democrats said it gives money to “governments who desperately need funds.” But it also gives lots of money to people who don’t need funds. Maryland, which even The Washington Post admits is “flush with cash,” got enough extra money to pass a budget that “hands bonuses to…
    John Stossel
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  • news

    Better Foster Care System Would Cut ‘Economic Inequity,’ Child Welfare Veteran Says
    The nation would reduce “economic inequity” and “race inequity” if the federal government focused more on helping foster care children find a permanent family and create a life where they don’t rely on the government, a former health and human services official in the Trump administration says. “We would move kids so they’re not spending…
    Steven Hall
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  • opinion

    Call Transportation Bailouts What They Are: More Welfare for Labor Unions
    Congress is moving full steam ahead on ramming through a bloated, wasteful, and debt-exploding $1.9 trillion legislative package. Although it’s supposedly justified by the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the spending is designed to appease progressive ideological causes and politically connected interest groups. A prime example is the $57.5 billion currently earmarked for various parts of…
    David Ditch
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  • opinion

    How Trump Restored the Principles of Welfare Reform and Lifted Americans Out of Poverty
    This article is an excerpt from the “2020 Mandate for Leadership: A Clear Vision for the Next Administration.” It looks back at policy decisions made by the Trump administration over the past four years. You can purchase your copy of “Mandate 2020” here. For decades, conservative policymakers have worked to reform welfare—so it’s a temporary safety-net,…
    Leslie Ford
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  • opinion

    Cuccinelli Schools Media on Immigration, Welfare, and Freedom
    The left-wing media are having a field day distorting acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli’s comments regarding the famous poem emblazoned on the base of the State of Liberty. Discussing the Trump administration’s new “public charge” rule, an NPR host asked Cuccinelli whether the poem’s words “give me your tired, your poor”…
    Star Parker
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  • news

    New Rule Could Deny Green Cards, Visas to Immigrants Who Use Welfare Programs
    Federal officials will consider an immigrant’s use of welfare benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid as a negative factor in deciding on the eligibility of the immigrant’s permanent legal residency or on a temporary visa.  “It will also help promote immigrant success in the United States as they seek opportunity here,” Ken Cuccinelli, acting…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    Why Welfare Hasn’t Cured Poverty
    When President Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty in the 1960s, he pledged to eliminate poverty in America. More than five decades, several welfare programs, and $25 trillion later, the welfare system has utterly failed the poor. The poverty rate remains mostly unchanged, and tens of millions of Americans are dependent on government assistance….
    Genevieve Wood
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  • opinion

    USDA Is Funneling ‘Trade Aid’ to the Agriculture Sector. It’s Old-Fashioned Corporate Welfare.
    There is renewed hope for trade talks with China—a welcome development for the American economy. But the damage caused by the fight continues. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is using the situation as an excuse to funnel more taxpayer money to the agricultural industry. It is spending $16 billion on trade aid for farmers affected…
    Daren Bakst | David Ditch
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