The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) continues to lose billions of taxpayer dollars to improper payments despite years of reform efforts. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), SNAP made $10.1 billion in improper payments during fiscal year 2025, representing 10.6 percent of all benefits distributed. More than $8.8 billion resulted from overpayments, meaning recipients received more assistance than program rules permitted. The latest figures a

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered an investigation into a tax exempt hospital that advertised childbirth services near the U.S.-Mexico border just days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship. With the Court reaffirming that children born on U.S. soil generally acquire U.S. citizenship under the 14th Amendment, Mission Regional Medical Center's campaign encouraging expectant mothers from Mexico to give birt

Conventional wisdom often suggests that cutting income tax rates inevitably reduces government revenue. Montana's experience tells a different story. After steadily lowering its top individual income tax rate from 11.0 percent in the 1980s to 5.4 percent today, the state has experienced substantial growth in income tax collections. Rather than shrinking the tax base, Montana's reforms appear to have strengthened it by encouraging greater economic activity. Lower Rates, Higher

Tax-exempt hospitals receive billions of dollars in federal, state, and local tax benefits each year in exchange for serving charitable missions. Too often, however, some large nonprofit hospital systems have used that privileged status to expand revenues, enrich executives, and exploit government programs while providing taxpayers with little transparency about how those tax subsidies are used. The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means recently approved H.R. 9504, the Tax E

The Center for a Free Economy (CFE) submitted the following comments for the record to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to the agency's proposed rulemaking on Medicaid reimbursement reform. The Center for a Free Economy (CFE) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) proposed rule regarding Medicaid managed care State Directed Payments (SDPs) and Medicaid fee-for-service targeted payment policie

Tariffs have raised prices for consumers, increased costs for businesses, and offset part of the economic benefit of H.R. 1, the Working Families Tax Cuts. The Trump Administration now has an opportunity to correct course by pairing targeted tariff relief with the law’s strongest pro-growth provisions. The new U.S.-China Board of Trade is a useful start. According to Skadden, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking public input on roughly $30 billion in Chinese

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has spent years advocating for one of the largest payroll tax increases in recent history. She now has an unexpected Republican ally: Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH). Their proposal would eliminate the Social Security payroll tax cap, producing an estimated $3 trillion tax increase while pushing the top federal marginal tax rate above 50 percent for many affected taxpayers. Yet despite asking Republicans to support one of the largest tax increases

One year after President Trump signed H.R. 1, the Working Families Tax Cuts, millions of Americans are seeing the benefits in their paychecks, tax returns, and household budgets. Workers, seniors, parents, and families are keeping more of what they earn through lower taxes and expanded opportunities to save and invest. Over the past year, the Center for a Free Economy has tracked these reforms through research, blog posts, and educational videos that explain how the Working F

Social Security's financial outlook continues to worsen, yet many policymakers continue to promote higher payroll taxes as the primary solution. New analysis suggests that approach would impose significant costs on workers while doing little to address the program's underlying problem. A recent Cato Institute analysis found that Social Security's Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is now projected to become insolvent in 2032, one year earlier than previously expected.