NEW PAPER: Cleaning Up the Welfare State

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The US welfare state has a lot of problems. Most conspicuously, it lacks many benefits found in similarly developed countries like child care, paid leave, and universal health care. These omissions tend to dominate the public debate, but creating a decent welfare system will require more than just adding new benefits. We also need to clean up and rationalize the welfare state we already have.

In this paper, I propose a series of moderate reforms to major welfare programs including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Unemployment Insurance, and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. The overall purpose of these proposed reforms is to move towards a welfare state that is simpler, more coherent, and more centralized.