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
A major feature of the House Ways and Means Committee’s “tax bill” is an expansion of the child tax credit. This expansion was necessary to… Read More
PoliticsCommentary
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… Read More
SocietyCommentary
This month’s midterm elections might have come with a high price tag. The outgoing majority might attempt to push through the last of its remaining… Read More
PoliticsCommentary
The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on the partisan Build Back Better Act. This legislation, if enacted, would generate the largest… Read More
EconomyCommentary
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… Read More
SocietyCommentary
Strong families and hard work have formed the foundation for healthy development, meaningful relationships, and economic well-being ever since America’s inception. Now, President Joe Biden… Read More
SocietyCommentary
Editor’s note: This commentary was written and published before the coronavirus pandemic began to disrupt life and work in America and around the world. The… Read More
SocietyCommentary
The Trump administration on Wednesday released a final rule strengthening work requirements in the food stamp program. Predictably, it set off alarms on the left…. Read More
EconomyCommentary
Philip Alston, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently reported that in the United States, “[a]bout 40 million live in… Read More
EconomyCommentary
President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order calling for reforms in the welfare system to promote work and strengthen marriage. The president is… Read More
SocietyCommentary
President Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed an Obama administration policy that undermined one of the most successful domestic policy reforms in the last half-century. In… Read More
EconomyCommentary
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump endorsed the RAISE (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment) Act introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue,… Read More
EconomyCommentary
President Donald Trump’s newly released budget contains a proposed food stamp reform, which the left has denounced as a “horror” that arbitrarily cuts food stamp… Read More
Health CareCommentary
Recent reports indicate that the Trump administration and House Republicans are considering “work requirements” in Medicaid as part of their overall health care reform package…. Read More
SocietyCommentary
Does current immigration economically benefit ordinary non-immigrants? A recent major report indicates that most immigration does not. In September, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)… Read More
SocietyAnalysis
The long-term costs to taxpayers of immigrants and their descendants are detailed in a new report from the National Academy of Sciences. The findings in… Read More
SocietyCommentary
On Thursday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will release its report on “The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration.” According to the… Read More
SocietyCommentary
On Tuesday, the Census Bureau released its annual poverty report declaring that 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty in 2015. We should be concerned about… Read More
EconomyCommentary
Today is the 20th anniversary of welfare reform. Two decades ago, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, known as… Read More
SocietyCommentary
Twenty years after the welfare reform of 1996, House leadership is once again turning attention to policy for fighting poverty. Reforming the massive welfare system,… Read More
SocietyCommentary
This week President Barack Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services reached the startling conclusion that if massive welfare programs such as food stamps and… Read More
EconomyCommentary
One trillion dollars—that’s how much the government spent last year on means-tested welfare aid, providing cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to poor… Read More
SocietyCommentary
The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual poverty report. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has a small social welfare system and far more… Read More
EconomyCommentary
Today, the Census Bureau will release its annual poverty report. It will almost certainly report that over 40 million Americans “live in poverty.” But what… Read More
SocietyCommentary
This week, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual report on income and income inequality. Historically, the official Census figures on inequality are misleading… Read More
SocietyCommentary
Fifty-one years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty. Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $22 trillion fighting Johnson’s war, three… Read More
EconomyCommentary
President Obama’s new tax plan, which he discussed in part in the State of the Union, lays out new proposals that he claims would help… Read More
SocietyCommentary
Before Congress recessed for the midterm elections, lawmakers announced plans to use the current lame-duck session to work on passing a bill called “The Achieving… Read More
SocietyCommentary
It is no accident that the collapse of marriage in America largely began with the War on Poverty and the proliferation of means-tested welfare programs… Read More
SocietyCommentary
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual report on poverty. This report is noteworthy because this year marks the 50th anniversary of President… Read More
