The 21st century is off to a rocky start. Recent shocks of plague and war make the global financial crisis of 2008–09 and the terrorist attacks on 9/11 seem like ancient history. But the United States and the global economy were rocked by these events, too—one and two decades ago, respectively. Key Points: The cumulative…
In 2017, lawmakers passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the most significant overhaul of US tax law since 1986. Among its many changes, the TCJA raised the standard deduction, limited several itemized deductions, eliminated the personal exemption, doubled the child tax credit, reduced the corporate income tax rate, temporarily allowed businesses to expense…
The idea that government can do something to improve American civil society is in many ways a contradiction in terms. Key Points: The growth of the US government’s reach has crowded out many of the arrangements that cooperating private citizens have made to take care of those in need and work together to build and…
In a country mired in debt, with prodigious and unbridled spending from both political parties, the least that citizens should expect in exchange from such spendthrift is a basic level of support for the most vulnerable populations. Yet there’s a gaping hole in our safety net. Key Points: America has no national policy to ensure…
In his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan popularized the importance of work as the primary means of self-sufficiency by telling audiences, “The best social program is a job.”1 In 2015, President Barack Obama echoed the same idea, saying, “The best antipoverty program is a job.”2 As a matter of national character, Americans of all backgrounds…
When it comes to K–12 schooling, conservatives have been far better at explaining what we oppose than what we favor. Everyone knows we are broadly against federal overreach, reckless spending, and teachers unions. But what are we for? Key Points: It often seems the list begins and ends with “school choice” and “keeping Washington out…
What should conservatives be for when it comes to early childhood education? In 2012, the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick M. Hess wrote that on education policy, “conservatives are nothing if not confused.”1 A central cause for that confusion: The bipartisan education reform project of the past several decades has been a shotgun marriage between the…
There are more than three million reports of child abuse and neglect each year in the United States.1 Deaths from child maltreatment are on the rise, reaching almost 2,000 in 2020, and nearly 440,000 children are in the foster care system.2 These numbers are driven largely by our drug crisis, which shows no signs of…
Few conservative domestic policy achievements over the past 40 years have been as important as the welfare reforms of the 1990s. These reforms initially comprised innovative state experiments authorized by policy waivers during the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations. They culminated in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996,…
The number of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) benefits as disabled workers increased from 1.0 million in 1965 to 9.0 million in 2014, and beginning in 2009, the DI program began paying out more in annual benefits than it received in taxes and interest from its trust fund.1 In light of this growth,…