Critical Issues Dividing the Parties and the Nation: Welfare Programs

Before examining partisan positions, the term welfare programs must be defined carefully. Sloppy definitions lead to sloppy thinking, and sloppy thinking leads to bad policy. In contemporary political debate, the word “welfare” is often used imprecisely to refer to any government benefit, which obscures meaningful distinctions between social insurance, entitlement programs, and means-tested assistance. Defining…

Silencing the Saints: The Left’s Hypocrisy on Faith and Public Life

Americans live in a strange moment. For all our talk about “free speech,” “pluralism,” and “diversity,” there is one voice that many in our cultural elite insist should remain silent: the Christian voice. You hear it in classrooms, corporations, and newsrooms—often delivered with the smirk of enlightened certainty—that “religion has no place in public policy,”…