May 24 What happens when states go hunting for Medicaid fraud By Jen Fifield, Stateline Faced with growing Medicaid enrollment and tight budgets, Republican lawmakers in several states are taking steps to ensure that people receiving welfare benefits are eligible for them. Continue reading
May 10 How does where you live affect your life expectancy? By Paul Solman Life expectancy can very by as much as 20 years depending on what county you live in, a new report finds. Continue reading
Mar 18 We’re talking about inequality all wrong By Laurence Kotlikoff, Alan Auerbach The right measure is not how much wealth or income people have or receive, but their spending power after the government has levied taxes on those resources and supplemented those resources with welfare and other benefits. Continue reading
Apr 23 Twitter chat: Should the government tell welfare recipients how to spend their money? By Nora Daly A new Kansas restricts the ways in which recipients of government assistance can spend their benefits. While many states have placed restrictions on how benefit cards can be used, prohibiting purchases such as alcohol, tobacco products and adult entertainment, the… Continue reading
Apr 16 Watch 7:43 Why it’s so hard to get off welfare By PBS News Hour Since 1996, in order to get welfare in the U.S., you have to work. The Clinton Welfare-to-Work program successfully got millions of families off the social safety net program. But today's recipients face stagnant low wages and limited resources for… Continue watching
Apr 16 New Kansas law would limit how welfare recipients can spend their benefits By John Hanna, Associated Press TOPEKA, Kan. -- A new Kansas law tells poor families that they can't use cash assistance from the state to attend concerts, get tattoos, see a psychic or buy lingerie. The list of don'ts runs to several dozen items. Continue reading
May 06 Social safety net catching fewer of America’s neediest, study finds By Anya van Wagtendonk Although U.S. welfare spending has shot up in the last three decades, it is helping fewer of America’s poorest citizens, says a new study out of Johns Hopkins University. Continue reading
Jan 11 Watch 9:43 Poverty rates surge in American suburbs When President Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” fifty years ago, images of the American poor focused on the inner-city and rural poor. What is the state of American poverty today? Megan Thompson reports on the less visible but growing… Continue watching
Nov 28 Watch What role should the government play in the health care of its citizens? What role should the government play in the health care of its citizens?… Continue watching
Mar 13 Watch News Wrap: House Blocks Obama Administration’s Welfare Work Waiver In other news Wednesday, the House voted to block the Obama administration from allowing states to waive welfare work requirements. The GOP claimed the president was trying to destroy the 1996 welfare reform law. Also, a trial began in Steubenville,… Continue watching