Welfare programs should be designed to be temporary and targeted to benefit those most in need, but helping individuals move from dependency to self-sufficiency should be the primary focus of safety-net programs. As taxpayer funded services, such government programs must have accountability and oversight to ensure efficiency and integrity, with performance metrics that discourage fraud and determine that programs are, in fact, reducing poverty and encouraging self-sufficiency.

Poverty

Guide to the Issues: Welfare Reform

Principles:

Helping people move from dependency to self-sufficiency should be the primary focus of the safety net. Making work pay is essential. Working more hours or getting a pay raise should not set families back financially Programs should target benefits to the most…
Criminal Justice, Education, Government Accountability, Health Care, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending, Transportation

Guide to the Issues: Occupational Licensing

Principles

Citizens have a right to pursue a legal occupation and the burden should fall on the government to justify any restrictions to that right. Restrictions on economic liberty should be targeted at protecting health and safety and policy-makers should demand proof…
Criminal Justice, Education, Government Accountability, Health Care, Legal System, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending, Transportation

California Lawmakers Reach Consensus over Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill: A Model for Georgia Reform?

California State Democratic Sen. Holly Mitchell and various law enforcement groups in California have reached an agreement regarding the fate of a bill introducing various reform measures to the state’s civil asset forfeiture laws, according to The Los Angeles Times…

Criminal Justice, Education, Government Accountability, Health Care, Legal System, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending, Transportation

Above All, Do No Digital Harm

Congressional action could have unintended negative consequences.
Criminal Justice, Education, Government Accountability, Health Care, Legal System, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending, Transportation

‘Guide to the Issues’ Offers Georgia-focused Solutions

By Benita Dodd

BENITA DODD

The media hype surrounding the political parties’ national conventions spotlights the enormous discord created by personalities and politics as the presidential election approaches. Getting short shrift amid slogans and the scramble for dollars and votes…

Poverty

Poverty Solutions Should Minimize Government’s Role

Imagine the solutions if we embrace churches, charities, corporations and citizens as the solution instead of bigger government.
Poverty

Georgia Is Moving Forward on Welfare Reform

The central component for helping people escape poverty is work.
Health Care, Poverty

Beyond Medicaid: Health Care for Low-Income Georgians

There are better routes than Medicaid expansion to health care for low-income individuals.
Economy, Education, Health Care, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Publishes Foundation Op-ed on Legislature 2016

Session 2016: Limit government, advance economic opportunity.
Economy, Education, Health Care, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending

A 2016 Legislative Wish List for Georgia

Conventional wisdom says a budget surplus plus an election year equals a legislative session that adjourns quickly to maximize time for campaigning and fundraising, but not before spreading government funds as widely as possible to maximize voter "happiness.”
Poverty

A Success Story in Helping Lower-income Workers

By Kelly McCutchen

With the media focused on partisan gridlock in Washington, it’s easy to overlook major success stories in bringing bipartisan public policy and innovative business partnerships together to help American workers.

Part-time and other lower-income workers often drop out of…

Criminal Justice, Education, Environment, Government Accountability, Health Care, Legal System, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending, Transportation

Halloween, ‘Sugar’ and The Right To Try

Twenty-one states now have Right-to-Try laws.
Cotton's Cottages
Criminal Justice, Economy, Education, Environment, Government Accountability, Health Care, Legal System, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Transportation

Private Property Rights: How One Think Tank is Changing a Nation

A think tank from Benita Dodd's native country is in the running for the Atlas Network's prestigious Templeton Award.
Poverty, Taxes and Spending

Government ‘Charity:’ Unwarranted and Unsustainable

Payments to and for individuals have grown in good times and bad.
Poverty

The Dignity of Work

For most people, chronic homelessness among men would not be the first choice among problems to tackle in inner-city Atlanta.
Poverty

‘The Poor Always Pay When There’s Austerity’

Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute participates in a panel discussion on poverty with President Obama.
Poverty

Welfare Reform Lessons From the Front Lines

Great welfare reform lessons from AEI’s Robert Doar, who achieved great success heading up welfare reforms in New York City.

Doar outlines the reasons for success in New York: “Welfare-caseload declines, work-rate increases, and child-poverty declines all happened largely because, for…

Poverty

When ‘Poverty’ Founders, Float ‘Income Inequality’

'Poverty' gets harder to define in a changing world.
Poverty

Chart of Existing Welfare Benefits

Rep. Paul Ryan included this chart in his recent anti-poverty proposal.

Criminal Justice, Education, Environment, Government Accountability, Health Care, Legal System, Poverty, Regulation Reform, Taxes and Spending, Transportation

After SHEP … Georgia Looks Toward a New Savannah River Terminal

Georgia already has its sights set on the next strategy after completion of the Savannah River Harbor Project. By Foundation Editor Mike Klein.